The Twilight Alliance
by Xochiquetzal
Summary: In defeating the Heartless, you have overlooked one small detail - the soul. Sora, Riku and Kairi encounter the Organisation once again. Contains Marluxia/Larxene in later chapters. In progress.
1. Lost Souls

Sora received the message from the King nearly a year after Organisation XIII had been defeated. It was just about the time that Heartless had begun to be active again - and this was no mere coincidence. There had been a small detail that the keyblade bearers had overlooked when fighting nobodies in the last invasion of darkness - the soul.  
Each person, Sora was told, is made up of three parts - a body, which gives them physical form, a heart, which aligns their reactions to the world, creating feelings, and their soul - an accumulation of all that the person was, is and will be. The soul was, in simple terms, their memories and true essence of being. It was also explained, that upon loss of a heart, the body and soul, if strong enough, can develop their own will and become beings know as nobodies - unable to feel, but still with their own intelligence due to their retention of a soul. When these nobodies were killed, it was always thought that the soul would be destroyed along with the body.  
However, it was beginning to seem that this was not the case.

The sun had reached zenith and its rays beat down brightly on the calm shore, illuminating the soft sand and casting deep shadows beneath the numerous paopu trees dotted along the beach. Lapping waves and the occasional birdsong were the only sounds to be heard. All the evidence presented showed that it was just another, normal day on Destiny Islands.  
Three friends sheltered from the sun underneath a tall coconut tree, huddled together in the small pool of shade from its large, outspread leaves. There were two boys - one older, with shocking silver hair and well toned muscles; a cool, collected kind of person, and one perhaps a few years younger, with long, ruffled brown hair and a still childish face. In personality, he was nearly the opposite to the older of the two - innocent and excitable but also quick to anger. Perhaps more likely to act before thinking. The other was a girl; cheerful like the younger boy, but quieter and a little more thoughtful. She was, in a way, a cross between the two boys.  
Riku, the older boy, was the one holding the crumpled parchment. Sora ahead given it to him the moment that it had arrived, and all three had read it through several times.

_Sora, Riku, Kairi.  
I had hoped never to be forced to call upon you again, but the time has come that I am in need of your assistance once more. We had once assumed that when nobodies, a person's soul and body, were destroyed, the soul would ascend to the next life. However, this is not the case - unfortunately it seems that both the heart and soul is needed for this transition. These souls have become "lost", now looking for not only a heart but a host, too. This could prove exceptionally dangerous as the nobodies of Organisation XIII may not be as dead as we had hoped, and could be seeking vengeance as I write. Unfortunately, the fate of all the worlds once again is in your hands. I will be sending a gummy ship to pick you up and take you to Hollow Bastion in three days' time, where I shall give you more information. I hope you are all well in the meantime.  
Regards,  
King Mickey of Disney Castle_

"So Organisation XIII could have returned?" Kairi asked, worried. She'd had run ins with the group of nobodies before, and none of them had been pleasant.  
"I dunno. Anyway, it sounds serious. We should probably go pack," Sora said, taking the letter from Riku and rolling it back up.  
"We've got three days," Riku said. "Kairi, you'd better stay here. It's not safe out there with heartless and these new lost souls as well,"  
"No way!" Kairi argued, offended. "I'm coming with you!"  
"Sure," Riku gave a wry smile. "You don't know what you're up against. The King needs people like me and Sora - we've fought before and we know what we're doing,"  
"You're just scared that I'll be better than you!" Kairi punched him lightly on the shoulder. "My name was at the top of that letter too, and this time I'm coming whether you like it or not." She summoned her keyblade, a golden, flowery affair. "Sure, I might not have much experience, but I'm a quick learner, right?" She swung it around and the shiny metal glittered in the warm sunlight.  
Riku still looked doubtful, but Sora chose to intervene.  
"Riku, let her come. It can't be much fun waiting for us boys to come home from battling, not even knowing if we're all right or not, right, Kairi? How about I teach her some moves before we leave," He also summoned his keyblade, the Kingdom Key, and led Kairi off down the beach to where the two boys often trained. Riku sighed, following to watch. He took his time walking on the warm beach, feeling the sand beneath his bare feet. It had been too hot to wear his usual garments today, so he'd instead donned just a simple white sleeveless shirt and khaki three quarter lengths. By the time he'd reached the others, the illusion of serenity on this shoreline had all but been shattered. Kairi was blocking Sora's careful blows, and in the act, had pushed him back into the cool water. It splashed around his ankles as he dodged a blow from her and leapt forwards to attack again. Riku jumped up onto the old wooden jetty and watched them battle, Sora occasionally shouting instructions to his younger friend. The oldest of the group was reminded of when he and Sora had battled in the same carefree way, using old wooden swords made from driftwood. Of course, Riku had always claimed flawless victory, but that never stopped Sora from trying.  
Eventually, a few minutes later, Kairi gave up, panting.  
"C'mon, let's take a break now. I'm thirsty," She flopped down onto the sand, letting her keyblade dissipate with a flash. Sora nodded, also slightly out of breath. "Riku!" He called to the boy on the jetty. "Let's go get fruit juice!"  
"Kairi given up already?" Riku teased, jumping down into the sea with a splash. Sora jumped away from the cold spray, so Riku splashed more at him. Of course, the brunette boy was unable to resist the change to get his own back, so he ran into the sea, covering Riku with water. Kairi eagerly joined in and soon they were all soaked to the skin. Sora sat down in the clear water, laughing. "What a way to cool off," He kicked his legs up and down, sending his own miniature waves off towards the shoreline. Kairi joined him, pulling a disgruntled Riku down with her. "Don't forget that in a couple of days we'll be fighting heartless again," Riku muttered, drawing his knees close. Neither Sora nor Kairi seemed as concerned as they should be.  
"So we should make the most of the time we have left! Stop being such a pessimist, Riku," He whined, splashing the offender. "Come on, let's get drinks now. Training is really thirsty work,"

Kairi had a flask of tropical fruit juice in her bag, which she'd left under the tree, along with some healthy snacks. As she poured out the juice into three plastic beakers, Riku handed out the apples.  
"Can't we have chocolate bars or something?" Sora grumbled, biting into his apple nonetheless. "Your mum is so annoying sometimes,"  
"If you want that apple, don't complain," Kairi said, stealing the fruit from Sora's hands. The keyblade bearer made a grab for it, but Kairi held it out of the way.  
"Fine, but can we have chocolate next time?" Sora submitted, and Kairi returned his apple, laughing. She also handed the two boys their juice and they all sat down next to the tree, sipping it thoughtfully. Behind them a small waterfall splashed down into a bubbling stream. "How do you fight a soul, anyway?" Sora wondered aloud. "I'm not sure," Riku replied. "It would be difficult to kill them if they don't have bodies,"  
"Don't you boys ever think of anything other than fighting? What if the point is not to kill them?" Kairi objected. "Maybe we should be trying to reunite them with their hearts instead, so they can move on peacefully,"  
"Their hearts were destroyed by the darkness," Riku replied.  
"Nonsense! Hearts are made of light, they'll always be hidden somewhere in the darkness,"  
There was a stunned silence. Evidently, neither Riku nor Sora had thought of this possibility.  
"How do you know?" Riku eventually asked.  
"Because... I don't know. But darkness can't destroy the light, right? It can only cover it. That means that no matter how dark it is, or how hopeless everything seems, there's always light, deep down, somewhere. You should know that, Riku. You were lost in the darkness and you still came out in the end,"  
"But I didn't become a heartless or a nobody," Riku parried. "Things just don't work that way, Kairi. Sometimes the only way to help is by fighting,"  
Kairi fell silent, angry. Sora began to think, however. Riku knew more about the darkness than anyone, but what Kairi was saying seemed to make sense. He was reluctant to say anything in her defence, however. He didn't want to upset Riku any more. Reunite all the souls with their hearts, no matter how far buried in the darkness they might be. That way they could go to the next life and no longer cause trouble in this world. That seemed to be the three keyblade bearer's task. "It seems really daunting, though," Kairi was saying, and Sora broke away from his chain of thoughts to listen. "If you think about all the nobodies that you fought, and there's a lost soul for each of them, that's a lot of hearts we'll need to find for them,"  
"This isn't about finding hearts, Kairi," Riku mumbled. "But I see your point. They could be wreaking havoc in all the worlds by now."  
"We'll just have to wait until we see the King," Sora said. "He might be able to find answers for us,"

They continued to talk until they had finished their drinks, and then Sora fought with Kairi some more. The girl had been right, she was a quick learner. Although she wasn't very strong, it didn't take long for her to pick up that she could overcome her disadvantage with her speed. With the abilities that Sora was teaching her, she was sure that she would be able to prove herself worthy of joining the boys on their newest mission.  
As the sun dipped lower towards the horizon, the temperature also began to drop and Sora began to regret soaking himself in the sea earlier. "Should we go back now?" He asked, putting down his keyblade. "I'm getting cold," He noticed that Riku had put on his dry jacket and Kairi was now shivering despite the warmth.  
"I want to watch the sunset," Kairi said. "Mum said the weather was going to take a turn for the worse tonight, so we might not get a chance for a while. But I'd like to go back and get some warm clothes,"  
They all agreed. Particularly with such a intimidating task ahead of them, it was only fair that, just like Sora had said, they should make the most of the time they had left. They took the boat back to the main island and raced each other to get changed the quickest so they could return to their island. Kairi ran towards her house at the end of the long lane, where her foster family lived. She'd been found washed up on the shore of the very same island that she and her friends so often played on now when she was very young, and a kind family had agreed to take her in. She was always grateful for their love, and felt a little bad about leaving them like this. But on the other hand, she was excited about finally being able to fight along side the boys. For too long, she'd just been the damsel in distress.  
She let herself in through the back door, and quickly ran up to her bedroom, thinking. Riku seemed so reluctant to let her come with them, but she knew it wasn't out of meanness, just worry. He well knew the effects that darkness could have on a heart and he didn't want Kairi to go through the same thing as he had. She reminded herself to tell him that she was one of the Princesses of Heart - so she couldn't fall into the darkness. She was annoyed that he didn't seem to accept her theory of light and darkness, and that the disagreement could cause a rift when they least needed it. It was a matter that needed to be addressed as quickly as possible, and hopefully the King would have the answer.  
She grabbed the first dry clothes that she could find - a pair of loose beige trousers, a colourful sleeveless orange top that she couldn't remember where she got, and a white jumper with black trim as an afterthought. She also unloaded her bag and refilled it with a load of ice creams. She nearly tripped over the dog on the way back down, but managed to get out of the house in one piece. The boys were already waiting for her by the boats, so she apologised quickly and promised them ice cream when they got back to the island. Riku had changed into his usual dress - a sleeveless white and yellow jacket over a black body warmer and blue jeans. He was also this time wearing trainers. Sora was wearing similar trousers, and his old jacket, which was really getting too small for him now, but he didn't care.

They all climbed on top of the old paopu tree so they could watch the sun, now low in the sky, sink below the horizon. Kairi pulled the ice creams out of her bag before they could melt.  
"That's odd," She said as she handed one to each of the boys. "There's one left over. I could have sworn I packed three. Oh well. Who wants the spare?"  
"This is where it all started," Sora remembered, grinning as Kairi gave him the leftover ice cream. "It's weird to think that two years ago, we were sitting here, dreaming of going to other worlds, and now we've done it all."  
"Not quite in the way I had hoped, though," Riku laughed. "And Kairi still hasn't seen all the worlds,"  
"All the more reason for me to go," Kairi replied, elbowing Riku playfully. He glared at her, still not happy about her determination to join in with the quest. "Come on," She said, seeing his expression. "I can wield a keyblade for a reason, right? I promise I won't slow you guys down. Sora's been teaching me all the moves, I can hold my own,"  
"I just don't feel like I should be putting you in danger. You're a girl after all," Riku grimaced and cowered as Kairi attempted to slap him.  
"That doesn't make any difference!" She laughed anyway as Riku fell off the wide branch. Sora joined in with the mirth as he helped his best friend back up onto the tree. By now the sun had reached the horizon and the once clear blue sky was turning into a brilliant red and orange fire. A few clouds speckled the scene.  
"You know why the sky goes red at sunset? Because red travels the furthest out of all the colours that make up the light," Sora said suddenly.  
"How do you know that?" Riku asked. "What a weird thing to say,"  
"I don't know," Sora admitted. "It just came to me,"  
"Well, it's something I'll always remember now," Kairi said, gazing out towards the horizon. "It's so beautiful, isn't it? look how the light illuminates those clouds," She pulled out a camera and quickly snapped some photographs of the sunset. "Wait there, I'll take a picture of you two together, as well." She jumped off the tree and ran a little way away, before turning back and steadying the camera. There was a flash, and Kairi gave them a thumbs up. She ran back to show them the shots. "Riku, take one of me and Sora, and then Sora can take one of us," She gave the camera to him and got back up onto the branch. "That way, no matter where we are, we can always remember each other,"  
It took a few minutes to take all the photographs and print them out. Kairi handed the one of her and Riku to Sora, her and Sora to Riku and kept the last one, of the two boys, to herself. "You're pretty good with a camera, Kairi," Sora said as he looked at the sunset pictures, back on the tree. Riku agreed with him, shuffling through to find his favourite. "Perhaps I should take it with me," Kairi suggested. "Then we can always remember all the places we've been and people we've met,"  
"Yeah. It's so easy to forget what people look and sound like," Riku said as the last of the sun slipped into the sea, leaving just a sparkling glow on the horizon. Above them, the stars were starting to twinkle mysteriously. "Soon we'll be up there," Sora murmured, pointing to the pinpricks of light in the deep blue night. "We'll train again here tomorrow, right?" "I don't know, if the weather's not good-"  
"You'll get wet," Riku interrupted. "If you can't take a little storm, you might want to stay at home after all," He teased. "No way! I can take anything you throw at me!" Kairi tried to push him off again, but this time he was expecting the attack and wrestled her back into her place. Suddenly, there was a flash, surprising the fighting pair. Sora grinned as he lowered the camera. "More memories," He held the camera out of reach, but Riku managed to pull it away from him, snapping a couple of Sora grinning like an idiot and a surprised looking Kairi. They battled together, trying to get good photos of the others without getting caught out themselves, just as the last slivers of light disappeared below the horizon.  
Eventually they left the island when it became too dark to see, and said goodnight to each other, leaving for their own homes. At midnight, when all three were asleep in bed, the storm finally broke over Destiny Islands, covering the beaches and villages with rain. The once calm sea became a raging beast, tormenting the shoreline and rocking the boats perched helplessly on top of it. Thunder and lightning rolled angrily across the sky and darkness reigned.

Three days later, the gummy ship arrived to pick them up.


	2. Nonentity

Donald and Goofy, the King of Disney Castle's two highest subjects, debarked from the gummy ship into the cold, wet rain. Goofy shivered as the downpour fell onto his head and shoulders, soaking him instantly.  
"Gawrsh. I thought that this world was sunny," He complained, looking about for Sora and his friends. They'd agreed to meet on the little island where the keyblade bearers often played, but there was no sign of them here. In fact, there was no sign of life at all. All the birds usually making a racket among the trees had gone into hiding for the tempest, and the usual scuffles and noises from the forest had been replaced by the never-ending pitter patter of rain.  
"It is normally!" Donald barked back. The rain was ruffling his feathers, and it put him in an even worse mood than he usually was. "Where are they?"  
"Probably late," Goofy grinned, and from his expression it was easy to see where he had got his name. Donald glared at him, but advanced along the beach towards the jetty. "Sora!" He called out across the ocean, where the main island was just visible through the shroud of rain. "They're already here," Goofy noticed.  
"How do you know?" Donald asked. "Because their boat is over there," Goofy motioned to the little wooden rowing boat bobbing up and down like a rubber duck on the waves, fastened tightly to a mooring ring on the jetty. Donald looked around angrily.  
"Where abouts are they, then?" "Right here," Came Sora's voice from behind them, making Donald jump. "Hi Goofy, hi Donald,"  
"A-hyuck! I told you, Donald!" Goofy said in his thick accent. "Heya, Sora, Kairi, Riku. Gawrsh, you've all grown since I last saw you all,"  
Sora grinned, proud of himself. "When do we leave?" He asked, pointing to the gummy ship down at the other end of the beach. "I get to drive, right?"  
"No way!" Donald fumed, making Riku laugh at his younger friend. "I'm not letting you crash a perfectly good vessel," He frowned. "Come on. I want to get back into the dry,"  
Goofy was more sociable, making idle conversation with his old friends as he plodded through the rain. "So what have you been doing since we've been gone?" He asked the three.  
"The usual," Kairi replied. "School, playing on the island. We salvaged our raft, but never really sailed it in the end,"  
"Awh, what a pity. But you get to visit other worlds this way too, right?" Sora had told Donald and Goofy all about the trio's raft, Highwind, and how they'd planned to sail to other worlds on it. Kairi smiled.  
"Yeah. I guess so,"  
They reached the gummy ship and everybody climbed in, taking off their shoes as they entered, on orders of the ship s mechanics, Chip n Dale. "Oh!" Sora remembered something all of a sudden. "The first time I went on a gummy ship, I remember looking at the view and wishing my friends could have been there to see it. Well, now they are," He smiled happily as he sat down.  
"You're so soft, Sora," Riku grinned, ruffling Sora's hair. "Wait until you see it!" The younger boy replied. "It's like- well, I won't ruin it for you," He shifted over so that Riku and Kairi could both have seats next to the windows. "Oh, hey, Jiminy,"  
Jiminy Cricket, the Captain of the ship and also the chronicler of Sora's previous adventures bounced over to greet the new arrivals.  
"It's good to see you again, Sora, Riku and Kairi," He said, shaking hands with all three of them. "How have you been?"  
"Great, thanks," Kairi smiled as he disappeared off back to the front of the gummy ship, ready to command takeoff. "I'm actually pretty excited," The only girl on the ship admitted, looking out of the window through the foggy mist outside. "Hopefully the weather will have improved by the time we get back, right?" She laughed. "Fasten your seatbelts," Came the command from Donald at the front of the ship. "Ready for blast off!"  
Chip 'n' Dale echoed the orders to each other, scurrying busily around, making last minute checks on the ship. "Full throttle!" Chip, or maybe Dale, exclaimed once the checks were complete. The engines whirred to loudly life, and suddenly the gummy ship accelerated off the beach until it was soaring upwards away from Riku and Sora's homeworld towards the stars. Riku was trying to act nonchalant about the entire ordeal, but Kairi could barely contain her excitement as the burst through the atmosphere into deep space. Everywhere, whole galaxies glittered brightly around them, and entire worlds unfolded around them as they sped through the darkness.  
"Amazing, isn't it?" Sora grinned at Kairi's reaction, pleased to be able to make her smile. "I guess it is pretty cool," Even Riku was forced to admit. "Where are we going first, anyway?"  
"Hollow Bastion," Goofy informed them, hearing Riku's question. "Apparently there's been lots of them nasty heartless around the Castle lately,"  
"We're nearly here," Donald said from the pilot's seat as the world came into view in the distance. "We'll meet Leon and the King there," He spoke the King's name with pride.  
They landed close to the small town, and walked in through the gates where Leon, Yuffie and the King were waiting. Goofy and Donald bowed in respect to their king as soon as they saw him, so Sora and Kairi followed suit. Riku walked right up to him and shook his hand. "Hey, Mickey," He grinned at the small mouse.  
"Show some respect!" Donald furiously exclaimed at the tall boy, but he was ignored.  
"Hi, Riku. I'm sorry I had to call on you again. But you've sure grown very tall since I last saw you! You all have," The King motioned to Sora and Kairi. "Everyone's been saying that." Riku laughed. "Hi to you, too, Yuffie, Leon,"  
"Thanks," Leon remarked dryly, but Yuffie was more forgiving. "It's great to see each other again!" She grinned, giving everybody a big welcoming hug. "Hi, everyone. Where's Cid?"  
"He's with Merlin, working on Claymore again. Come on, I'm sure there's a lot that you three want to know. I'll explain it all soon," the King motioned for the others to follow him as he walked down the road to the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee's headquarters. As they walked, Sora, Kairi and Yuffie were full of conversation with nearly a year's worth of happenings to catch up on. "You never shut up, do you?" Leon teased her as they reached the small building. He held the door open for everyone else, before walking in last himself. Inside the large room were three people - Merlin and Cid, who were deep in conversation themselves about the city's defence system, Claymore, and Aerith.  
"Oh! Everybody arrived safely!" She smiled, bobbing her head to each of the new arrivals. "It's good to see you all again. My, you've grown so much, Riku!"  
"How come everyone brings that up?" Riku grumbled as Sora greeted all of his old friends. "I'm sure I haven't grown that much,"  
"At least you have grown. Yuffie's as short as she always was," Leon remarked earning himself a punch from the offended party. "Anyway, have a seat, if you can find one," Aside from the stool in front of the giant computer that Cid was perching on, there didn't seem to be another chair. Sora settled himself on some old wooden boxes, and Riku and Kairi joined him.  
"I made some lemonade," Aerith announced, picking up a large tray from the side and handing out glasses. Thirsty from their trip, the keyblade bearers plus Donald and Goofy accepted the cool drinks graciously, and Cid gulped his down in one go, but Leon politely declined. "So," Riku began as he set his now half-full glass down on the box next to him. "You said you'd explain things to us when we got here?"  
"Of course," The King said. "Yuffie?" The young girl jumped down off the counter where she had been sitting to explain.  
"Well, after you defeated Organisation XIII, we thought that that would be the end of it. Of course there were still a load of heartless and nobodies left, but we've got rid of almost all of them now. Did you notice?"  
"Yeah, I didn't see a single one coming into the town," Sora said encouragingly, and Yuffie grinned broadly.  
"Anyway, but recently all these weird ghost-like things kept on popping up. We managed to identify them - they're the nobody's soul that couldn't go to the next life because its heart was missing," He grin was replaced by a melancholy expression. "It's kinda sad, really. But they can't do much harm on their own,"  
"Not until they fuse with heartless," Leon near-growled.  
"How can they do that?" Kairi asked.  
"They're looking for a heart right? So they find the next best thing - a heartless, which gives them form, so they've been attacking people all around the place," Cid explained. "They can be pretty dangerous,"  
"Isn't a heartless just like a heart? So they could move to the next world, right?"  
"Not quite. The heartless are too far seeped in darkness," Merlin reflected sadly. "Otherwise they would be able to pass on,"  
"These creatures - what was it you called them, Merlin?" Leon continued.  
"Nonentities. Because-"  
"Thanks. These nonentities aren't that much of a concern - once you defeat them, the released heart fuses with the soul and they pass on to the next world. And most of them aren't particularly strong; they're just slightly stronger than nobodies. The problem is that, if our theories are correct, it means that Organisation XIII will be back." Leon finished.  
"okay," Sora finally said. "That's really confusing."  
"It just goes to show that the heart is even more complicated than we thought, and that the three parts of a human are so intricately connected that taking away just one part could overthrow the whole balance," Merlin elaborated.  
"Thanks for confusing me even more," Sora exclaimed, putting his head in his hands. "It's really simple," Riku laughed. "All we have to do is defeat these nonentities before they do any real damage to anyone,"  
"There is one other thing you should know," The King interrupted. "Not all nonentities are evil. Combining with a heartless gives them some of their former human compassion, so you should look out for the ones who might help you,"  
"All right! I think I understand now!" Sora grinned, jumping up. "When do we all go?"  
"Wait up a minute there, Sora," Goofy laughed at Sora's eagerness. "We decided that me and Donald won't be joining you this time, we'll help the King in other worlds,"  
"Aw, okay," Sora said.  
"So we're not as important to you as they are?" Riku laughed. "Thanks, Sora,"  
"Wait! That's not what I meant! I meant... I thought we'd all be going together- wait, does that mean I get to drive a gummy ship?" Sora tried to redeem himself but soon became preoccupied with the thought of being able to finally steer the gummy ship.  
"Maybe splitting up wasn't such a good idea, after all," Donald lamented. "Naw! I just need a little practice, that's all!" Sora complained. "How about I drive?" Riku suggested. "I'm sure I'll be better than Sora,"  
"Yeah, I don't really want to collide with a meteor," Kairi agreed.  
"Hey! Kairi! Don't side with him!" Sora poked his friend, pouting. "That's not fair,"  
"Break it up, guys," Cid commanded, glaring at the fighting trio. "I have work to do,"  
"Oh yeah, we'd better get going." Sora said, all traces of anger suddenly lost from his voice.  
"I think there's a few nonentities and heartless around the town that got past the Claymore. Could you quickly deal with them, please?" Leon requested. "Yuffie and I really need a break, and it'll give you a chance to brush up on your fighting,"  
"Sure," Sora agreed. "We'll meet you back here when we're done then, right?" He gestured for Kairi and Riku to follow him, and summoned his Keyblade. "Wait!" Kairi called. "I want to get a few pictures. Everyone, line up," She pulled out her camera.  
"I'll take it," Merlin offered, taking the camera and gesturing for everybody to get into position. "That way you can be in the picture too, Kairi. Gosh, how do you work this thing?"  
"Maybe I'd better take it," Kairi began to worry for the safety of her camera.  
"Nonsense! I can work it out. Get in the picture,"  
Kairi had barely made it next to Riku and Kairi before there was a blinding flash and Merlin stood back, proud. The camera began to print out the picture. Merlin snapped another one as soon as it was done. "This one's for us to remember," He took the photograph and showed it to the others.  
"Oh, I look awful!" Cid complained, looking at it. "All these late nights fixing Claymore," He grumbled. Yuffie laughed.  
"Leon looks as grumpy as ever,"  
"Behave yourself!" Leon whacked Yuffie over the head as Kairi reclaimed her camera, taking one of the pair fighting, and Merlin looking bemused in the background.  
"Great!" She exclaimed. "I love taking photos,"  
"We'll get going now," Riku said as he steered Kairi away from the others. "See you later,"  
"Yeah, the King and Donald and I might leave straight away for the next world." Goofy said. "I hope you do well,"  
"Good luck!" Yuffie called as they walked out of the door.  
On the street outside, a few people were mingling, but the sun was beginning to go down and most of the town's residents were inside. The low light painted the town in beautiful red and gold hues.  
"Kinda reminds me of the sunset we watched before we left destiny islands," Kairi said dreamily. "This might sound silly, but I'm actually really excited about all this,"  
Riku sighed.  
"It's not all fun and games, Kairi. You just don't understand."  
"Riku! Stop being such a party pooper! Come on, let's go kick some heartless butt!" Sora grabbed Kairi's arm and pulled her away to the huge castle after which the town was now named. "There's bound to be some around here,"

Sure enough, there were several groups circulating the fort. Sora jumped down, followed by Kairi and Riku. "Time to practice your skills!" He called as one group advanced towards Kairi. She summoned her keyblade and was soon battling away, surprisingly successfully. Riku joined in, making quick work of the small creatures with his superior fighting talents. Just as Sora got rid of the last one, a few more appeared, along with some strange creatures that none of them recognised.  
They resembled nobodies, but were distinctly different - there was no emblem emblazoned on their heads, which were now covered by hoods beneath which yellow eyes glowed, instead a new symbol depicting a heart with wings was visible on their chests. Underneath long white coats, there was what looked like a cross between a heartless and a nobody - the colour and shape of a heartless but with similar proportions to a nobody. Unlike the heartless, however, each one was slightly different, as they seemed to display slight characteristics of the humans they had once been. White wings were another new feature of the odd creatures. They were also slightly translucent, and sparkled in the dim light. "Those must be nonentities," Sora said, lunging as one attacked him with long, sharp claws. "They're pretty fast," He fought back against the strange being, defeating it in several blows. As it faded, the shimmering translucence of the creature mixed with its heart, and it disappeared in a puff of smoke.  
"So that's the heart and soul moving on to the next world," Riku said as he, too, released a nonentity. Kairi was also keeping pace with the boys; she was almost able to match the great speed of the nonentities so had an advantage against them. Together, is was easy not to be overwhelmed by the creatures.  
Sora had just defeated the last of that particular group when a strangely shaped shadow glided over them. He looked up to see that on the walls of the fort was a huge nonentity, larger than any of them had ever seen before, glittering, casting long, shimmering shadows on the ground. "We gotta defeat that, right?" Kairi looked shocked to see an enemy so big. Sora was about to reply, but the nonentity dived off the wall in one smooth movement, sweeping towards them, arms outstretched, preparing attack. The creature reminded Sora of the trick master that he'd fought in Wonderland a couple of years ago. It had four heads stacked on top of each other, and long wire-like arms that held flaming batons. However the white cloak it was wearing was new; its tattered ends flew around in the wind as it advanced towards them. "Blizzard!" Sora wasted no time calling a spell, aiming at one of the batons. It froze briefly as it attacked Riku, cancelling out its affect. Confused, the nonentity spun around to face Sora. "Thanks," Riku said, jumping towards the creature and slicing it with his keyblade. It shook, bemused, then flew up into the air where none of the keyblade bearers could reach. When it came down, it was with enough force to shake the ground, throwing them off balance. In one sweep of the baton, it had taken out a large chunk of both Sora's and Kairi's health. Riku took the opportunity of its lessened defence to attack the nonentity and it retaliated, bringing his life down as well. Sora quickly employed the use of a mega potion before it had a chance to take any of them out. "We've got to get it into a corner!" Riku yelled at the others. Together, they managed to steer it into one end of the fort, and Sora cast another spell, not only confusing it but doing serious damage as well. It retaliated angrily, releasing a torrent of fireballs. Riku tried to attack again, but it dodged, fleeing away from them. Then, to they keyblade bearer's surprise, it replenished itself using a potion. "What?!" Riku exclaimed as the nonentity attacked again, bringing Kairi to her knees. "It shouldn't be able to do that!"  
"It's because strong nonentities often possess a similar intelligence to humans, they know when and how to use potions," Riku heard Leon say. He looked upwards to see the man standing on the wall of the fort. "You'll just have to keep on fighting!"  
"Kairi can't keep up with this!" Riku motioned to his younger friend, who had dropped her keyblade and was now helpless against the nonentity's onslaught. "We have to get her out of here," He told Sora, who helped her up, giving her a potion. Leon jumped down to help her away. "We can't defeat it, it's just too strong," Sora yelled at Riku, dodging a swirling baton.  
"We can't just let it roam free! Think of all the damage it could cause to the town!" The older keyblade bearer called back.  
Sora nodded, determination on his face. He motioned for Riku to attack one side, whilst he took the other. Hopefully the tactic would confuse their enemy enough to find its weakness and destroy it. But the nonentity seemed to have picked up on his fighting style and was able to dodge some of his attacks, even though Riku seemed to be getting through. Suddenly the creature spun around, taking them both by surprise and getting past all their defences. It slammed Sora straight into the wall and knocked him out cold. He crumpled onto the floor, keyblade dispersing as he lost consciousness.  
"Sora!" Kairi yelled from the fort wall. "Sora! Wake up!"  
Riku ran towards his old friend, dodging the nonentity's attacks. "Sora, get a grip!" He shook Sora's shoulders, and the boy moaned. Riku quicky used his last potion to cure Sora, but now the keyblade bearer was in no condition to fight. "Come on, you'll be alright. You're not that weak, are you?"  
"Thanks, Riku," Sora grinned weakly as Riku helped him up. "I was just caught by surprise, that's all,"  
"Sure," Riku gave Sora to Leon who led him away, before turning towards the nonentity. "looks like it's just you and me, buddy,"  
"You're going to fight him alone?" Kairi exclaimed, shocked. "look what it did to me and Sora!"  
"I'll be fine," Riku promised, concentrating hard on reading the creature's moves. _It's not just any old heartless_, he reminded himself. _More like one of Organisation XIII._  
The nonentity wavered as if to attack to the left, but Riku saw through the feint and blocked to the right, before jumping backwards and throwing his keyblade towards it. It hit the creature right between the eyes, and it stumbled backwards, in shock. Riku called the weapon back to him, and pulled off a series of short-range attacks before it had a chance to recover. However, he noticed that his health was getting critically low and he'd given his last potion to Sora. Hopefully he would either defeat the nonentity or receive assistance before he was killed. But it seemed like the longer that he fought, the harder it was getting to hit his opponent, and not just because he was beginning to tire out. It was like the nonentity was beginning to pick up on his fighting style. He dodged another attack, when suddenly there was a flash of light and the nonentity fell down, its translucent form fading quickly. The released heart and soul combined, and moved on.  
Riku looked at the cause of the nonentity's demise - what looked like another nonentity. But there was something more human about its form, and it was a lot more familiar.  
Sora, up on the fort wall, exclaimed as he recognised the figure.  
"Saїx?!"


	3. Arabian Nights

The scarred man pulled down his hood, knowing that there was now no need to hide his identity. Blue hair, now tinted navy and then black from the heartless influence, fell around his shoulders, and brilliant yellow eyes glittered behind a chilling frown, perhaps slightly brighter from the berserker s fusion with a heartless. Just like all the other nonentities, he was slightly transparent, however the light didn't glint off him in the same way as the others. He let his weapon, a giant sword, fade.  
"A valiant effort from the keyblade bearers," He remarked conversationally, but there was a hint of ironic amusement in his voice as he motioned to their party - one in critical health and the other two unable to fight. "Better luck next time, perhaps?"  
"What are you doing here?" Sora yelled across the deep chasm of the fort. "You don't seem very pleased to see me. I defeated your nonentity, did I not?" Saїx didn't seem to feel the need to raise his voice despite the large distance between him and the people he was talking to. "Why did you kill it, anyway? Why would you want to help us?" Riku called up.  
"Nonentities - they are truly pointless beings,"  
"Aren't you one too?" Riku said, and Saїx glared coolly down at him. "I do not wish to fight you just yet, young keyblade bearer," He avoided the question that Riku had posed.  
"Then what are you trying to do?!"  
"That is not of your concern,"  
Before anyone else had a chance to speak, he was gone. Riku climbed up the steps out of the fort to greet his friends.  
"That was strange," Sora was saying to Kairi. "I wonder what he wanted in Hollow Bastion, anyway?" "Yeah, it was odd that he defeated that nonentity for us." Kairi replied. "Oh, hi Riku."  
"I think that we should train here for a bit longer, if some of the nonentities we fight could be that strong or stronger," Riku suggested, sitting down to replenish his potions. "Particularly Kairi,"  
The group's only girl stared at the ground unhappily as Riku mentioned her.  
"I'm sorry. I said I wouldn't, but in the end I just slowed you down. Perhaps I should stay here and wait for you,"  
"No, you did really well, particularly for your first time fighting real heartless," Sora was quick to attempt to cheer her up. "You could just do with a bit more practice, that's all Riku meant." He glared at the silver-haired boy, who just shrugged the cold look off.  
"That nonentity was unnaturally strong," Leon, who hadn't spoken for a few minutes, muttered. "I haven't seen one that powerful yet,"  
"See? You were fine, Kairi. Don't listen to what Riku says," Sora grinned as Riku punched him on the shoulder for that remark.

They scouted the town for more heartless, but they only appeared in odd little groups of five or six, so it was easy work to fight them. Kairi proudly defeated her first nobody a few minutes before sundown, and after ridding the town of several more groups, the group decided to take a rest. "We might as well stay the night," Sora suggested, sitting down on an old stone step outside a small parade of shops. "There's not much point leaving tonight, by the time we reach another world everyone will be asleep,"  
"That's a point. I am hungry, though," Kairi rubbed her stomach. "Are there any restaurants around here?"  
"There are bound to be a few," Riku jumped up. "Let's go find a place to stay for the night. I have plenty of munny,"

---

"You saw them?"  
He was standing in a large white room with marble walls adorned with chipped pillars and statues, and moonlight was shining dimly in through the slit shaped windows that lined one side. From the ceiling, cobwebs were gathering quietly, and the floor was busy collecting dust. The entire place reeked of musky age, and was in dire need of redecoration, or at least, a very thorough spring clean. Until recently, nobody had set foot in the room, let alone the entire castle that it was a part of, for years. There was no heating, and not even a fire in the old, cracked fireplace in the corner, so the room was freezing cold.  
Saїx was dressed casually in loose jeans, a sleeveless black shirt and a long-sleeved leather jacket, unzipped. Through parts of him that weren't covered, you could just about see the wall behind him, tinted by the chalky, papery colour of his skin and the ends of his hair that were dark blue. His companion was more formal - dressed in the old coat that they all used to wear. It wasn't his; it was too long, too wide around the middle and with long, draping sleeves that seemed to get in the way whatever he was trying to do it.  
Xemnas brushed them out of the way, irritably. "Sora, Riku and Kairi. They are currently working together to defeat the nonentities; I assume that by now they would have realised that we're back, or at least some of us are," Saїx replied to his once-Superior's previous question. He was the only of thirteen that Xemnas had been able to find once they had been defeated as nobodies. The others, they assumed, were still in spirit form, unless they had worked out to fuse with heartless. "Did they see you?"  
"I intervened with their battle. The nonentity they were fighting was unnaturally strong, too strong for them to be able to cope. Both Sora and Kairi were unable to fight, and Riku on the verge of death by the time I destroyed it for them,"  
Xemnas frowned. "You say that the nonentity was very strong - could it have been another of the former Organisation that you simply didn't recognise?"  
"No, it couldn't have been. We hardly changed at all during fusion; this creature was barely even humanoid. I don't know if we'll be able to find the others,"  
Although Saїx had never had any emotional connection to any of the other nobodies - he couldn't have done; the only time he'd known them was when he hadn't had a heart - but he knew how close Xemnas' somebody had been to the five other apprentice members, and even as an incomplete being, he had some concern for their safety. Of course, the Organisation's former superior tried to mask it by claiming his search for them was just to regroup Organisation XIII and continue towards their goal to become whole, but Saїx had long since speculated that that wasn't the case.  
"And you let the keyblade bearers see you. Now they'll be after us; what happens if they find any of the other members before we do? Divided, we are weak. We _need_ to find the others." Xemnas's urgency was evident in not only what he said, but also his tone of voice. Saїx looked away.  
"We've been searching for months, Xemnas, and there's not even been a single sign of the others. They could be spirits, nonentities, even dead - the point is, we just don't know," He reminded the other former-nobody. Xemnas glared at him, but then sighed, turning away to stare out of the long oblong windows at the other side of the room. Admittedly, there wasn't much of a view.  
"Maybe they are all dead. In that case, all this fruitless searching would be in vain," He sucked in a long breath, turning back to a few haphazard reports.  
"I'm sure that at least some of them are alive; we survived, so the chances are that they might have done as well, surely?" Saїx offered.  
"Perhaps. We can but hope."  
Xemnas thought for a while, returning to his feet and beginning to pace, agitated. Saїx watched his every step with a scrutinising stare - it really wasn't helping the situation that they were both on edge. "I wonder if whether we were defeated by a keyblade bearer or not would have any significance on the nature and whereabouts of our souls?" Xemnas suddenly asked, startling his companion who had become used to the long periods of silence that often accompanied them. He thought about the strange theory.  
"I'm not sure. I don't think so,"  
"A keyblade is a very powerful weapon. Even we don't know all of its possible uses and abilities," Xemnas said. "Even so, it is a possibility that our means of 'death' could have affected our states now. Assuming that a keyblade is needed to leave the soul in the living world - like our souls - then... Vexen, for example, as he was destroyed by Axel, would be dead, whereas since Sora defeated us, we aren't,"  
"I suppose we'll find out when we've found the others. It's just Vexen and Axel, isn't it? And Roxas, but his case is rather different to ours,"  
"Roxas's soul lives inside of Sora. It's the same with Namin and Kairi." Xemnas explained, just as the old grandfather clock on the wall chimed eleven times. "It's getting late, we should retire for the night. We resume our search tomorrow morning,"  
Saїx nodded, teleporting away to his chambers. Xemnas stayed, walking over to a large bookshelf in the room. It hadn't been there for long - it had formerly resided in the basement of the castle. He scanned through the odd collection of books on the dark wooden shelving, running his translucent finger across one row of nearly identical leather-bound journals. He pulled on off, and glanced briefly at the front. _Even_, it said on the front in plain gold lettering. Xemnas pulled a smart, but old, fountain pen down from a pot on the shelf, examining it in his hand almost nostalgically. Then he flipped the book open to the first blank page, and began to write.

---

To his dismay, he awoke at about eight o'clock in the morning. As he rushed to get showered and dressed, he knew that Riku and Kairi would already be awake, and would laugh at him as he turned up late at the breakfast table. He struggled to find his clothes, of course, and his shoe zips gave him grief, but eventually he managed to get himself ready. He careered down the two flights of stairs, and reached the breakfast table there the others were waiting.  
"Morning, sleepyhead," Riku grinned.  
"Sorry," Sora apologised, helping himself to cereal and toast. "I woke up late,"  
"That's okay, I was going to wake you but I didn't have the heart in the end," Kairi laughed. "Anyway, Riku and I were just discussing when to leave. We were thinking about nine? Goofy and the others already left last night, they sent a message to our gummy ship that that they'd arrived in Deep Jungle. We'll be going to Agrabah first,"  
Sora nodded, quickly ingesting all that information as he munched on his cereal, shoving another spoonful into his mouth.  
"Got that," He said as soon as he had finished that mouthful. "How long until we leave now?"  
"About 15 minutes," Riku replied coolly, glancing up at the clock on the wall. "Wha- Seriously?" Sora exclaimed. He noticed that Riku and Kairi already had their bags packed, lying on the floor next to them. "I gotta go pack!" He stuffed a piece of toast in his mouth and ran out of the door and back up the stairs. Riku watched him go with a smug smile on his face. "Well, we'd better pay so we can be ready for when Sora comes back," He said to Kairi, standing up and collecting his bag. They walked over to the reception, a cosy looking room with a low, wooden beamed ceiling, a thick carpet and a few potted plants in the corner. They'd just finished sorting out payments when Sora returned, out of breath, with a bulging bag plus a few things he hadn't been able to fit in. He threw the key to Riku, who gave it politely to the receptionist. "Have a nice day!" She called as they walked out of the front hotel's front doors, Sora still juggling his luggage.  
"Would you like me to hold some of that stuff for you?" Kairi offered, noticing that Sora was struggling to rearrange all the items so he could fit the last few things in. He gratefully accepted her help, giving her a towel, a few potions and a book to hold. Then he pulled his pyjamas out of the bag, and tried to put them back in slightly more neatly to free up more space. He was resting the bag on his knee, which meant that he had to hop to keep up with Riku, who was striding on oblivious to Sora's battle against his bag. Kairi, however, was being more helpful. She helped to fold Sora' pyjamas, and then his towel so that they could fit the book and one of the potions into his bag. The brunette boy stuffed the other potions into his pocket, and ran to catch up with Riku.  
"Thanks for waiting," He joked as he shrugged the bag onto his shoulder, pretending to be annoyed, but he knew that he could never be truly angry with his old friend. Riku was about to reply, but by now they'd reached the gummy ship. Jiminy Cricket jumped down to greet them.  
"Hi! I'm staying with you still," He announced. "Especially because none of you can fly a gummy ship,"  
"Aren't you a little small, though?" Sora asked, holding the tiny bug in the palm of his hand as he climbed into the cockpit of the ship.  
"Of course!" Jiminy laughed. "I'll be giving you instructions, and you'll all take turns eventually. Sora, you'll go first so we won't have as far to go back to Cid when you crash,"  
Sora pouted.  
"I am not _that_ bad at flying a gummy ship!" He exclaimed.  
"Yeah, sure you're not," Riku grinned, climbing into one of the passenger seats. "This'll be interesting," Sora ignored him, settling down proudly in the pilot's chair.  
"Good luck," At least Kairi was trying not to tease him too much about his poor piloting skills. "And to you, Riku. Hopefully we'll get out alive," She whispered over at her other companion. Then again, perhaps not.  
"I heard that!" Sora yelled at them both, but only succeeding in making them both laugh. "Okay, at least I know what to do!"  
Jiminy quickly went over all the controls again for him, though. "Everybody strapped in?" He asked once his instructions were complete, twisting in his chair to see his two friends behind him. Riku glanced over to check Kairi, and nodded. "Blast off!" He called, and Sora carefully pushed down the throttle. The gummy ship jerked off its resting place, and as soon as it was high enough, he changed gears. The gummy ship sped off into the atmosphere, and was soon in space, dodging asteroids and other traffic. "How's it going so far?" Riku asked Sora. "I'm nearly too scared to keep my eyes open,"  
"Shhh," The other boy replied. "I need to concentrate," They swerved to stop from colliding with a huge floating boulder, and Sora had to use the gun to clear his path to stop crashing. Eventually they evened out, and the vessel stopped rocking quite so much. By the end of the trip, they'd even collected a few more parts for the gummy ship, and more to the point, were still in one piece. "Well done, Sora," Kairi congratulated him. "Yeah, you didn't crash us once!" Riku patted him on the back as they entered Agrabah.  
"Why do I feel like you're just rubbing it in even more?" Sora grumbled quietly to himself. However his worries were soon forgotten as he looked down the long, winding alleyways to the great palace that made up Agrabah. "I wonder where Aladdin is," He said as they walked down the first street, which was filled to the brim with life. There were so many people bustling up and down the road, street sellers calling out their wares, young children playing by the pavement and the occasional camel plodding along, carrying goods or sometimes people. The city looked very different to the last time that Sora had visited - before it had been a lifeless, dead world, overrun with heartless. He became so easily engrossed in everything there was to see, that he didn't even notice when he walked straight into Aladdin. He was dressed nicely, in a cream robe with a matching turban and a purple feather attached to it. A lock of thick black hair poked out from underneath it.  
"Sora!" The Arabian man exclaimed as he recognised his friend. "I didn't expect to see you here. Are these your friends?" He shook Sora's hand thoroughly, before introducing himself to Riku and Kairi. "I'm Aladdin,"  
"I'm Kairi, and this is Riku," Kairi pointed to each of themselves.  
"Yes, I remember Sora talked about you a lot," Aladdin reminisced about when he'd met Sora for the first time, two years ago. "Anyway, the Genie will be so pleased to see you! You came at just the right time,"  
"Did something happen?" Sora asked, meandering down the next road, looking at all the shops and stalls. "No, not yet - but you're just in time to come to the wedding!"  
"Wedding? You're getting married?" Kairi asked.  
"To Princess Jasmine? Wow, congrats!" Sora applauded his friend. "Yeah," Aladdin blushed, scratching the back of his neck. "Where are Goofy and Donald, anyway? I thought they'd be with you,"  
"They're... They're travelling with someone else this time. Now I've finally found them, I can travel with my old friends again," Sora grinned.  
"looks like we'll have a lot to catch up on. Let's go to the palace, you can meet Jasmine and the Genie there," Aladdin said, gesturing for them to turn down another street. Suddenly, however, there was a scream from somewhere behind them. Riku spun around to look at the source of the yell.  
"Sora! It's another nonentity!" He exclaimed.  
"Sorry, Aladdin, we'll talk later!" Sora called as he ran off to fight the monster, which was attacking a passing camel train. He called his keyblade to him, just as Kairi and Riku did. The nonentity was surrounded by small heartless, who were probably drawn to its power. Its face was covered by bandages, and it had no visible weapons, unlike the first nonentity that they had fought. Instead, it was creating balls of flame, firing them erratically. Sora quickly sent off a blizzard to stop the fire from spreading, whilst Riku attacked the nonentity directly. Kairi concentrated on getting rid of the heartless.  
The nonentity wasn't as strong as the one in Hollow Bastion, and now since they had some experience, it didn't take long for the boys to deplete the monster's health significantly. Kairi, fighting away from the other two, kept their own health topped up with potions whilst she battled with shadows. It seemed like that in next to no time at all, particularly compared to their previous battle, the nonentity fell, soul and heart entwining.  
"That was amazing!" Aladdin called, running over. "That's the third of those things we've seen, and they're so hard to get rid of, even for the Genie. How do you do it?"  
"That's a secret," Sora grinned, tapping the side of his nose. "Anyway, back to catching up on your news,"


	4. Master of Deceit

Clink, went the empty glass on the smooth, polished wooden counter. Minuscule bubbles slipped idly down its cold side, collecting in a white, foamy pool at the bottom. It was quickly refilled, picked up again and drowned in one go. Once again, the empty glass clinked on the smooth counter.  
He shifted on his stool, and the old wooden slats it was made of groaned uncomfortably in protest. All around him, there was a general chatter arising from the other people sharing this spacious room with him. Somewhere, there was the occasional clatter of dice being rolled onto a table, and sometimes, the odd clink of a cue hitting a ball. The entire atmosphere of the place was one of ease and good humour. However, good humour was the last thing that he was prepared to feel right now. He felt the smooth convex curve of the glass with his slender gloved hand, thinking. "Can I get you another?" The barman asked, walking over to the stranger with a dripping pint glass in one hand and an old tattered towel in the other. He shook his head, still exploring the curves of his empty glass. "Well then, there is the issue of, em, munny, before you leave,"  
The cloaked man nodded, leaning down to pull some coins out of his pocket. He placed them quietly on the table. "Keep the change," He muttered as the barman greedily scooped the glittering munny up in a large hand. Then he stood up with a flourish, pulling his coat tightly around him, and strode out of the pub door into the rain.  
It was strange, how everybody was always scared of him now. It was understandable - he always wore his long, black leather coat with its hood up, and he could never let anyone see his face. He hated having to hide this way, because it wasn't his nature. He wished he could have played for them and made them smile, but instead they scattered like terrified sheep whenever he was near. But if anyone saw him now.  
Demyx cursed the boy who had destroyed his body. He cursed the way that he had been forced to fuse with a such a twisted being as a heartless, just to have physical form, and the way he looked now. The black tints at the end of his hair would have been easy to cover up, or just left alone, and the bright yellow colour that had turned his turquoise eyes spring green hardly had people staring wide-eyed at him. It was the way nobody could see his face because they would be able to see right through to the other side of his head that left him hiding in the darkness. He wandered down to cold streets, water splashing up his boots as he stepped in and out of puddles. All around him his element glittered; it fell relentlessly from the sky, and poured off the sides of buildings like a swarm of insects. A beautiful, glittering creature that flowed smoothly, everywhere, along every surface, subtly shaping its path. The melodious nocturne took a swift turn left, and a few streets later, reached the sea. It didn't stop there - he waded right in until the swirling black water was up to his waist. He briefly checked back to see if there was anyone else nearby, but it was nearly midnight and the beach was deserted. He finally pulled down his hood, letting his hair down. He had let it grow significantly since his time in the Organisation, so the back was now long enough to tie back. He could no longer be bothered to gel up the top, so he'd let that grow too, and it just hung loosely around his head. He didn't feel the need to have good hair if no one was going to see him.  
He pulled off his damp gloves, stuffed them into his pocket and studied his hands. Behind them, he could see the ripples in the water that were emanating from him, and they created strange patterns on his chalky skin.  
The alcohol hadn't helped his situation. If anything, he was thinking even more clearly than before.  
He thought about his companions from the Organisation - Xigbar, Axel, Roxas. Where were they now? Had they, too, fused with heartless and were hiding their faces from the rest of the world? Were they alive, or dead? What if they were also standing alone, somewhere, in some other world, contemplating their pointless existence?  
He thought about searching for them, but the truth was that he didn't know where to start. Would they be looking for him? Somehow, the musician doubted it. The only one who he was really friends with was Xigbar; and the old man probably had more on his mind than looking for Demyx. Axel would be lamenting Roxas's loss, because he was certain that the boy didn't exist any more. The others didn't care - he knew that. Where would they be if they were still alive? Demyx had chosen Port Royal because it was easier not to get noticed; because it was always raining at this time of year. He knew that it was even harder to hide in the daylight because of the way that the sun managed to make him even more translucent than he was in the dark. He thought briefly about which worlds were as gloomy as this one, or at least one whose residents wouldn't be concerned by a translucent man.  
He summoned his sitar and began to play; a sad, slow melody that whispered out across the calm sea, reverberating against the high cliff faces that lay around the harbour that he was standing in. It bounced back, echoing in the silent night. It was a tune that Demyx had written just the other day - all his older songs had been cheerful to the point of annoying the hell out of the elder nobodies, but they didn't suit this cold, murky world. He smiled as he remembered one particular melody that nearly had Vexen popping a blood vessel. Then, irrationally, he felt his fingers change their rhythm and begin to shape a new song, or rather an old one. It was one that he hadn't written, but remembered from his years as a nobody. As his fingers danced across the strings, he began to sing the lyrics, at first quietly, but as he began to gain confidence, he sang louder. He threw his voice out across the sea, and would have thrown his whole heart into the song if he still had one - although his heartless side might count as one. It was an interesting question. The rain, once so forceful, began to quieten down, and eventually stopped. The clouds parted, opening up the heavens as his audience. The sudden illumination shone down on him like a spotlight and suddenly the harbour was his stage, the ocean his audience, the sky his limit. Then, as the song ended and silence returned, he heard clapping from a way behind him. He spun around, mentally kicking himself. How could he have been so stupid as to have made so much noise and completely revealed himself? He quickly threw up his hood in the hopes that the stranger hadn't seen his transparent skin.  
"Amazing show!" The woman called, and Demyx didn't recognise his voice. He stayed put, way out to sea. "Are you a spirit?" The strange person continued. "Play another song!" "Are you drunk?" Demyx called back. "Or just mad?"  
The woman - by no means young or beautiful, and probably lacking in personal hygiene too - began to wade out to sea, and Demyx panicked. Since he'd waded out into the cold water, the tide must have risen significantly, but of course, he could float so its increased depth didn't bother him. However by the time that this lady reached him, the water would go over her head and she would drown. Hopefully she would have enough sense not to go that far, but Demyx couldn't be sure. She had to have been seriously drunk to accept his strange appearance, so who was to say that she wouldn't just carry on walking towards him? "Don't come any closer!" He yelled. "You'll drown!" She blundered on regardless. By now the water was up to her waist, and she still had several metres to go. Fortunately, however, she seemed to notice that the sea was getting deeper and stopped. "Sing me another song," She said, more quietly this time. In the darkness, her ever so slightly unfocused eyes were shining. "Please. Your music is beautiful. Why do you wait until the night to play? I've seen you here before,"  
Demyx stared, surprised. He had no idea that someone had been following him all this time as he'd played in the sea. "What do you want me to sing?" He finally asked, walking towards her for a few steps. He noticed her features for the first time - she was pale, angular, with long, waving blonde hair, tied up into a loose ponytail which was dripping wet from the rain. He also noted that, strangely, at her side was sheathed sword. He didn't think that women usually carried around such weapons. "I don't mind," She pulled her skirts around her, shivering. "Anything,"  
He positioned his hands on his sitar, all the time thinking about what he should play. Eventually he decided on a song - another one that he'd written himself. As he began to sing, he felt himself relax. All the time, she silently stared at him with expectant brown eyes. This wasn't so bad. Even if she hadn't seen his face, she would have noticed how the sitar was visible through his hands. And yet, she accepted him. She must have been very drunk indeed. When the song finished, he lowered his sitar and it dipped into the calm water, sending ripples out across its calm surface.  
"What are you?" The lady said, and her tone of voice was almost accusing, so much that Demyx involuntarily took a step backwards. But her soft expression belied her voice. She sighed as Demyx did not reply. "I'll try again, then. What's your name?"  
"Demyx," He replied, somehow trusting this odd woman. "Yours?"  
"Elizabeth." She replied, walking a little closer. The water lapped around the bottom of her ribcage. "Now, about my first question,"  
"I don't really know," Demyx admitted. "It's complicated,"  
She smiled, the sort of smile that meant that she knew that there was more to tell. "All right, then."  
"I have to go," Demyx said. "Where?"  
"I don't know," He admitted, unable to find an alibi quickly enough.  
"You don't know much, do you," Elizabeth laughed. "Are you one of the merfolk, then? You seem the type, but I never realised that they'd be transparent,"  
"Yeah," Demyx lied, using her answer because then he didn't have to come up with one of his own. "Well, I'll see you around," He fell backwards, dipping smoothly into the water and disappearing beneath the surface. As soon as he was under, Demyx opened a portal to the corridors of darkness, and fell through.  
The wind picked up again, and howled in protest to the cold night air. Storm clouds gathered once again over Port Royal, and broke, spilling their load down in a torrential downpour. Darkness returned once the moon's light no longer shone, and the sea became a raging monster, swirling and crashing angrily onto the shore.

Demyx regained his balance carefully in the swirling darkness of the corridor, and wondered where to go next as he pulled his gloves back on and let himself dry off. Perhaps now wasn't the best time to start looking for the others, but he had to have begun at some point. Where would one of the others most likely be?  
He opened up a portal leading to Twilight Town, and stepped through. It was unlikely that he'd find Axel here, particularly at this ungodly hour, but it was an idea. He couldn't care less whether the pyromaniac wanted to see him or not, because he needed someone to talk to about being... whatever he was. Perhaps, if he found one of the other former nobodies, they would have answers. A disguise for their appearance. Or a way to reclaim their bodies or whatever they were missing now. He remembered, vaguely, Vexen or someone explaining to him what makes up a person. There was the heart, controlling emotions and controlled by memories, which was what he had lost to the darkness so many years ago. What heartless - stupidly named though they were - essentially were, just hearts lost to the darkness. Then there was the soul, giving the person life and presumably a place to store the memories. Demyx couldn't exactly remember what a soul was for. And finally, the body - his body had been destroyed, when Sora killed him - which gave the person physical form. Not for the first time, he wondered why he wasn't dead. Surely, without his body, his soul should have just disappeared or gone to the next life or whatever. Why hadn't it? Because, if that was the case, then wouldn't there be hundreds of beings like him wandering around? Perhaps the reason for him staying alive was that he needed something else to properly die - his heart. Maybe the whole point was that if you took away one of the three parts of a person, then it would throw off the entire balance and mean that the remainder couldn't live - or die - properly. Demyx walked the dark streets of Twilight Town, contemplating his theory. It was certainly viable, he thought. Heh. He felt just like Vexen, hypothesising everything like he'd ever know the answer.  
He turned a corner, and saw a flash of translucent white disappear out of the corner of his eye at the end of the road. Confused, he followed it, turning another corner only to see a trail of unworldly fabric slip around yet another building. He broke into a run to catch up with, and ran out into the main square. To his right, the magnificent bell tower watched over the entire town, and beneath - The ground was crawling with heartless, nobodies and another strange creature that Demyx hadn't seen before. They were nobody shaped, but a sort of black-but-white kind of grey and hollow, yellow green eyes just like heartless. They were translucent, just like him, and on their chests they bore an emblem that suddenly felt so familiar even though he was sure he'd never seen it before. He reached out to touch one, half expecting his hand to go right through it - but it skittered out of the way before they made contact. The assembly of creatures didn't seem interested in him; instead they were all crowding around the bell tower. Demyx stared up, trying to see what they were all so preoccupied with, and gasped as he saw the man standing on the top of the tower, perilously close to the edge. Demyx considered yelling at the man to get down, not to jump, to say at least something, but then he realised that it was just the person that he'd been looking for.  
"Axel!" He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled the former nobody's name, wading through the strange hoard of creatures towards the tower. "Axel, it's me! Demyx!" He hoped that he would see some recognition in the other's face, but of course he was too far away. Could Axel even hear him from up there? He hollered his name once again, and suddenly the red-haired man had jumped from the tower and was flying through the air, literally. Axel seemed to have unfolded huge, shining wings from nowhere and were cruising down on them. He landed in front of Demyx and the wings disappeared without a trace. "Demyx!" He exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"  
Demyx was trying to work out where the wings had come from.  
"What did you do?"  
"Oh, that trick - neat, isn't it? All the other nonentities had wings, so I figured it would be pretty lame if I didn't, so I took a jump off the tower, and sure enough, there they were. I can call them out whenever I like now,"  
"Nonentities?" Demyx was saying, hardly listening to Axel's tale. "Is that what we are now?"  
"Yeah - a soul fused with a heartless. King Mickey and his gang were here a while ago, and I overheard them talking about it. They don't know that the Organisation isn't as dead as they had hoped, though, but I think that they suspect it,"  
"Right. I did wonder,"  
"So where've you been?"  
"Port Royal. God, it was awful. I hate having to hide myself from everyone," Demyx motioned to his face, where the folds of his hood were just about visible through him. "Oh, that's the place Luxord went to, right?" Axel said. "Wait, you're actually alive. That means that all the others are! I didn't know if, you know, you properly died if you got defeated by a keyblade. Which would have meant that it would be just me and Vexen," He shuddered comically. "Have you found anyone else?"  
"No, I hoped you would have done," Demyx admitted.  
"I just stayed here. Considered looking, but who else is there apart from Roxas? And God knows what happened to him. Probably stuck inside Sora or something,"  
"I hate that boy so much," Demyx snarled. "He thinks he's so good, but he's no better than the rest of us. Thoughtlessly killing us all, even when we're doing nothing wrong, does he think he's some kind of God or something? Deciding who lives and who dies? It's his fault that we're like this now,"  
Axel looked surprised at his outburst; perhaps he hadn't realised Demyx's darker side. "Woah, chill, man. He was just doing what he thought was right," Axel scratched the back of his head absent-mindedly, jostling his spiky locks of bright red hair. Unlike Demyx, he had kept his old hairstyle right down to the two loose strands of hair that stuck out at his hairline over his forehead. "Maybe he should have thought a little harder," Demyx said, but most of his anger had subsided and his usual personality was showing through. "Sorry, Axel. I didn't mean to snap at you like that,"  
"Nah, it's okay. I can understand why you'd be annoyed," Axel laughed. "Oh, just realised. Vexen is going to slaughter me if he finds me, for killing him,"  
"You killed him?" Demyx was shocked. He hadn't got on too well with the cranky old scientist, but this news was surprising.  
"They didn't tell you?" Axel was surprised as well.  
"Nobody knew what happened at Castle Oblivion. We just got news that Sora had arrived, and then there was a break down in communication. Next thing that we knew, you were all dead, until you turned up about a month later, with not much to say about what had happened anyway," Demyx said. "It's always been a great, unsolved mystery."  
"Oh. Well, of course I wasn't going to tell Xemnas all the gory details, since the chances were he'd know the basics anyway. Basically, Marluxia and Larxene were trying to take over the Organisation, and they needed Sora for their plan, but Vexen was going to reveal to Sora that he was being used. So, of course, Marluxia couldn't have that, and ordered me to kill the bugger. It wasn't too pleasant, but I had to keep up the appearance of being with Marluxia right until the end." Axel explained.  
"Seriously? I thought that Marluxia was just your average nice guy," Demyx replied. They had wandered down another street and arrived at a dead end filled with boxes and an old, broken sofa. There was a scattered collection of odd memorabilia on an old table, spilling out onto the floor, of the group of friends that usually hung out there. "He seemed to go through some serious personality shift when he went to Castle Oblivion. But that's hardly unusual, right? Us heartless people do it all the time. What people mistake for a personality is just all made up, isn't it?" Axel sighed sadly, brushing his fingers past on old photograph of the gang grinning manically. _Roxas should have been there_, he found himself thinking.  
"Yeah. I guess so," Demyx said quietly. Even their fate was taking its toll on Axel, who never took anything seriously enough. "Well. We'd better get some sleep, if we're gonna hunt for the others tomorrow. Come on, I'll set you up in the flat I've got downtown," Axel gestured for Demyx to follow him, and they wandered back off again, into the black night.


	5. Catnip

"_Riku!!! Watch where you're going!!_" Sora yelled, pointing with a shaking finger at the boulder spiralling towards them. The boy in question swerved, barely scraping past the flying rock.  
"Don't distract me, Sora," Riku replied coolly, but there was agitation in his voice.  
"Maybe I should have let Riku go first," Jiminy admitted.  
"I said, don't distract me!" Riku yelled, turning around to shout at the little cricket. He had to spin upside down for a second to avoid a convoy of other gummy ships, and the others fell into a crumpled heap on the floor when he righted himself. "What turning should I take?" He exclaimed suddenly, noticing a junction up ahead. "Quickly!"  
He turned right, instinctively, just as Jiminy pulled out his map and said "Left,"  
"Can I turn around?" Riku asked, looking back at the ships behind him and quickly dodging a couple trying to overtake.  
"No, we'll have to go to a different world. I don't know which ones are down this way," Jiminy looked hard at his map. "We'll have to go to Pride Lands instead of Port Royal,"  
"That's okay, I wanted to see Simba again anyway," Sora grinned.  
"Sora, do you have friends everywhere?" Kairi asked.  
"Everywhere I've been," He replied with a grin. "Anyway, we can go back to Port Royal, right? Check out the sightings of a transparent man there. It would be another one of the Organisation,"  
"Yes, that shouldn't be too hard," Jiminy replied. "Riku, look out!"  
Riku, who had been looking over his shoulder to listen to the conversation, turned back to find his vision obscured by a huge boulder. He tried to dodge, but there were too close.  
"_Riku!!_" Was the last thing that he heard Sora yelling before they went spiralling down, smoke pouring thickly out of the engine.  
Sora tumbled out of the wrecked ship, coughing from the smoke and landing in a heap at the bottom of a small grassy mound of earth. Riku followed, stumbling outside.  
"Riku, you're so stupid," Sora complained as he helped Jiminy and Chip 'n' Dale away from the gummy ship. He looked around. "Where's Kairi?"  
Riku looked around.  
"She must have landed somewhere near here," He said, staring out across the grassy plains that made up the Pride Lands.  
"We have to find her!" Sora said, panicked. "What if she gets attacked by a heartless or a nonentity? He still can't hold her own that well!!" He stood up, and began to yell her name in the hopes that she would hear.  
"Wait a minute there, Sora! You have to change your form before you can go anywhere," Jiminy reminded him. "Did Donald show you how?"  
"Yeah," Sora said, holding his keyblade high above his head. There was a blinding flash of light.  
"How am I supposed to carry my keyblade now?" Was the first thing that Riku said as he studied his new form - a thick-set white lion whose mane flopped over his eyes. Sora - now a smaller brown lion, with his crown-shaped necklace still around his neck, shrugged.  
"I just fought with my claws last time," He admitted. "Come on, we need to find Kairi before she gets into trouble. Maybe we should go and see Simba; perhaps he'll be able to help,"  
"Remember that she'll still be in her human form," Jiminy lamented. "We should find her before we talk to Simba,"  
"Who's Simba?" Riku asked, confused, making Sora laugh as he slid down a steep slope onto more grass.  
"He's one of my friends from this world," He explained.  
"Do you make friends everywhere you go?" Riku asked, shouldering his younger friend into a ditch. Sora laughed as he got back up again and wrestled Riku to the ground.  
"Come on!" Jiminy called up from the ground. He'd fallen off Sora's shoulder when the two boys had began fighting. "We need to find Kairi as quickly as possible!"  
Sora quickly got back up, a sheepish expression on his face for forgetting his duty.  
"She might have fallen into the jungle," He motioned to the vast forest of foliage about half a mile off. "Let's check there,"  
"Sure," Riku changed direction to face the jungle, and began to run towards it, Sora following closely behind.

---

It was the perfect place to be. It was a vibrant, colourful world, with more shades of green than you could shake a stick at, plus a myriad of other colours as well. Vines drooped lazily from branches of tall trees and flowers sprouted from every nook and cranny. Somewhere nearby, a waterfall splashed over rocks into a small, glimmering pool, and even the occasional dragonfly would flitter past. Here, the fauna and flora came in every shape and size - it was a place so diverse that it could take years just to identify each species of moss growing on a single tree. He'd only been in this world a couple of days and probably wouldn't stay much longer, but he'd already made a mental note to come back one day.  
He never stayed in one place for long these days. Whilst normally he would be quite content to settle down on some backwater world somewhere, things just didn't feel right without somebody else to while away the hours with.  
He'd decided to search the jungle last, because it was the most beautiful place in this world, and he wanted to spend some time admiring it as well as just shifting through like all the other worlds he'd visited. He struck up conversations with the old trees, they were happy to help him look as long as he returned the favour with stories of the other worlds. Over the months, it seemed as though he'd carried a hundred messages between distant cousins. But other than that, there wasn't much to do except think. He'd done a lot of it - about himself, others around him, the things he'd done to people, the things that others had done to him - but in the end he decided that now that it was all over, it honestly didn't matter. The point was that somehow, miraculously, he was alive. He hadn't been grateful enough for his second chance at life, so he needed to be doubly thankful for this one.  
As the sun inched its way to zenith, the heat gradually increased in the humid jungle, and he shrugged his heavy leather coat off, folding it over and tying the slightly crumpled sleeves around his waist. Soon he'd have to stop for food. There wasn't much to eat in this world, but he was sure he'd be able to find some fruit or nuts, and if the worst came to the worst, quickly grow some himself; although of course it always tasted better having had all season to ripen. One of the trees nearby was rich with berries and it hardly took him a moment to reach them. He'd barely even begun to pick the ripe ones off before there was an unusually large agitation in the nearby flora. Startled leaves were expressing their muted alarm at being systematically moved out of the way by something more than just another pesky meerkat. He called out to the forest, but it wasn't anyone they knew, and there wasn't that electrical buzz to the atmosphere either that he almost hoped for.  
He was surprised to recognise the girl who came through into the small clearing, but there was no mistaking that face, so similar to Naminé's, and the shoulder-length reddish brown hair. He jumped silently down from his post.  
"Can I help you?" He said, startling her. She swung around sharply to face him, gasping.  
"I- What are you doing here?"  
"I could ask the same of you," He decided not to reveal that he knew her name. After all, they'd never met before. She frowned at him, as if she was trying to act strong, but her stance showed that she was ready to run if he made any unwanted moves.  
"Who are you? One of Organisation XIII?" She must have noticed the coat around his waist, and his bare skin that looked as though it had a strange mottled green quality from all the plants visible behind it. He smiled, however. Malicious though his intents may have once been to the Keyblade Bearers, he meant them no harm now.  
"I was. I don't believe that we've met before," He extended a slender hand. "My name is Marluxia. I believe that you are Kairi,"  
Kairi nodded, a little confused, but she took the hand and shook it firmly.  
"Why are you here?" She finally asked. "Why aren't you with the others?"  
Marluxia looked genuinely surprised.  
"They're alive? It seems logical, I suppose, but I never thought that they'd join together again,"  
"We saw Saïx at Hollow Bastion," Kairi told him. "He mentioned something about "we", I think. I thought that he meant that Organisation XIII was back together,"  
"How curious. Perhaps they are. But they wouldn't want me in their new Organisation."  
"Why not?"  
"I betrayed them in a bid for power," Was there the tiniest hint of regret in the nonentity's voice? "Anyway. Are you with Sora and Riku? I don't sense them anywhere near,"  
The forest was turning up nothing as he spoke silently to the aged trees, but his range only spread so far.  
"No, the gummy ship crashed and I got separated from them." Somehow, despite his friendly demeanour, Kairi wasn't sure if she could trust this man or not. There was some part of her that was trying to tell her that he wasn't to be believed - but she wasn't sure how right that part was. After all, they'd never met and he seemed to be alright. And Saïx hadn't tried to hurt them at all, either. It seemed like the former nobodies had had a change of heart and had abandoned their evil ways. It certainly was an encouraging thought.  
"Do you want me to take you to the edge of the forest? It could be easy to get lost in a place like this without the local flora to help you," He gave another awkward smile, probably one that hadn't been used much recently, to show that he meant no harm.  
"Uh... If you could, that would be great. Thanks," Kairi let him lead the way, and he made his way nimbly through the leaves, occasionally holding overhanging branches out of the way for her or helping her over thick logs and roots that lay in their path. All the time, he was being helpful, but Kairi couldn't help but be suspicious of him, and that feeling at the back of her mind just wouldn't leave her alone.  
"You're lucky I found you. I was just passing through myself,"  
"How far is it to the edge of the forest?" She asked, trying to sound conversational. Marluxia paused a little, eyes closed, face tilted up towards the thick canopy above them.  
"Just a few hundred metres. We should be able to see the end soon," Marluxia held out another branch and Kairi ducked underneath his translucent arm.  
"Okay. Thanks."  
"Anything else?"  
Kairi let out her personal anguish, preparing herself to run if he didn't react well.  
"I can't trust you. There's something inside me that's screaming at me, telling me that you're going to turn around and do something to me and-"  
Marluxia interrupted.  
"Naminé?" He laughed. "I should have guessed that you'd be in there somewhere,"  
In spite of herself, Kairi responded to the name. And yet, what Marluxia was saying didn't make any sense. "Don't worry," He continued, looking at her but past her at the same time, as if there was someone behind her she couldn't see. It took conscious effort not to turn around, just to  
check. "I've changed. I'll leave you alone once you've met up with the others. I'd cross my heart if only I knew where it was,"  
Kairi couldn't decide who he was talking to - but she was the only one there, aside from him. Perhaps he was senile. Naminé was the girl that Kairi had met in the World that Never Was; her nobody and as far as Kairi knew, she was dead.  
"She lives inside you," Marluxia said. "Come on, we haven't got far to go,"  
Kairi followed, confused. What exactly had he meant?  
But then they were at the edge of the forest and she could see two lion cubs running in the distance, calling her name.  
"That's Sora and Riku," Marluxia informed her. "Don't tell them I was here, okay? I don't want to cause unnecessary fuss,"  
And then he was gone, indistinguishable from the dense world of plants behind her.  
"Sora!" She called, cupping her hands around her mouth. The smaller lion, brown, with a scruffy spiky mane, turned around at the sound of her voice. The other one turned straight after, and they both bounded towards her.  
"We thought we'd never find you," Sora exclaimed. "Are you alright?"  
"I'm fine," Kairi assured him, ruffling his mane a little. "One of the forest's inhabitants led me out," She pointed back towards the jungle, but there seemed to be no sign of anyone having been there. She couldn't even make out the path that Marluxia had led her through.  
"That's funny. I didn't think that anyone lived there," Sora said, tilting his head to one side in thought. Kairi led him away from the plants a little bit.  
"It was one of Organisation XIII," She admitted quietly, because even though Marluxia had requested for her not to say anything, she didn't feel right keeping anything from her friends. "He was just passing through, so he offered to show me the way out,"  
"Organisation XIII?" Sora exclaimed. " We have to go find him!"  
"No, he said that he didn't want to cause trouble. He just wants to be left alone to do... Whatever it was he was doing," Kairi tried to stop the energetic lion cub from entering the forest.  
"Who was it?"  
"He said his name was Mar...luxia?" She said, trying to recall the odd name, and Riku frowned.  
"That must have been one of the ones from Castle Oblivion," He eventually said. "Well, we shouldn't bother him if he's not causing any harm,"  
"What if the rest of Organisation XIII are looking for him?" Sora asked.  
"That has nothing to do with us. Let's just leave it for now, and carry on with the job that Mickey asked us to do,"  
"Alright then. We'll go to Pride Rock and meet Simba now,"  
"Wait!" Said a little voice and it was Jiminy, perched in between two clumps of fur on Sora's head. Kairi jumped.  
"Oh, sorry, Jiminy. I didn't see you there,"  
"Our gummy ship is broken, right? And I don't think that even Chip 'n' Dale will be able to mend that damage and get her a'flying again. So we can't get off this world,"  
"That's a point," Sora said.  
"But we know that Organisation XIII can use portals, so maybe this Marluxia fellow can help us go to the next world, or back to Hollow Bastion to get our ship repaired,"  
"Not yet, though. We need to rid this world of nonentities first, and anyway, it's not safe for us to use darkness corridors," Riku muttered, falling into step with Sora who was already making his way towards Pride Rock.  
"No, of course. But it's a thought," Jiminy insisted. "Sora, you need to change Kairi's form," He deftly changed the subject.  
"Oh yeah," The brunette lion carefully used the keyblade to change Kairi into a lioness. Finally ready to set off, they hurried away to the pride's home.

---

Marluxia sensed a disturbance in the darkness corridors just as he was making his way through the last section of jungle. It was far too large just to be another pack of shadows, and it seemed to be somewhere near Pride Rock. He tried to ignore it, because now the Keyblade Bearers were here and they could take care of it, but if it was one of those creatures from-  
He shuddered, pushing the thought right to the back of his mind. Sora would be able to deal with it. After all, he had defeated him, the mighty Lord of Castle Oblivion. Marluxia felt his lips twist up into a wry smile as he remembered his old title. How far away from that was he now, wandering through worlds, sleeping in a different place every night and not even knowing where his next meal was going to be.  
He felt a twinge of difference in the balance between darkness and light - the fight must have already begun. He imagined the battle between the Keybladers and the strange creature that he was sure they would now be facing. He had no idea what the weird translucent beings - he being one of them - were called, but something told him that they were more powerful than either heartless or nobodies.  
Subtly but noticeably, the balance changed again and Marluxia knew that the Keybladers were one man down. Sometimes, he was grateful for his increased sensitivity to changes in light and darkness in a world, because now he knew who had the upper hand in battle. Right now, it wasn't Sora and his friends.  
He dithered on whether to intervene. He could easily put his Organisation coat back on, draw up the hood, and then he could just leap in and help without them knowing who it was. But it had been a while since he had fought anything, the past couple of worlds being largely peaceful and uneventful. He summoned his scythe, Full Bloom, experimentally and performed a few graceful sweeps, the blade slicing effortlessly through the air, and he received the movements like an old friend. Another slight shift, another Keyblade bearer unable to fight. It was time to take action - after all, he owed a debt to Sora for deceiving him so much in Castle Oblivion, even if the boy didn't remember it. He quickly donned his coat and pulled up the hood. That done, he opened a shimmering black portal and stepped through.


	6. Reunion

After having spent so long without fighting, the art came back to him almost naturally as he leapt out of the portal, attacking the beast immediately. Kairi was already down, and Riku was in critical health. He threw a potion that he'd been keeping in his pocket to Kairi, and she revived and returned in with the fight. The huge translucent creature that they were battling with angrily swung around to face the new threat, and Marluxia hit it right between its glowing yellow eyes. It stumbled backwards, defence thrown off for a few moments, and Marluxia managed to throw a spell - a black arc which whipped out from the path of his scythe - before it regained its balance. It retaliated faster than he expected, and he was thrown back against the towering side of pride rock. He had to think fast if he was going to stand a chance of defeating the monster - even his strongest attacks were doing little to lower its immense HP. He quickly rolled to the side as it threw a punch, and instead its fist hit the rock, denting it slightly, and making the whole structure shake with the strain. Sora was fighting back, but the creature was barely even registering him. Its eyes were focused on Marluxia alone.  
It tried to punch him again and he barely dodged in time, ducking below its huge fist. He quickly ran away from the wall, towards the main body of the monster, and then leaped up onto its leg, attacking it with several combo shots before he fell back down again. Riku had rejoined the fight, and was taking the lead; Sora was staying out of its range and firing long distance spells until his magic ran out, when presumably they would swap around. The strategy seemed to be working - susceptible to magic, the creature's health was going down, but the short range attacks that Riku was throwing on it kept it too distracted to come after Sora. Marluxia helped out by slamming shock waves into the ground, upsetting their opponent's balance. Whilst it was down, Riku managed to deal more damage to it by targeting its face. Marluxia noticed that Sora had run out of spells, so he continued the barrage with his own magic. Once Riku had taken over, he ran back to help Kairi, who was battling against a few heartless that the creature had summoned, but she seemed to be doing fine on her own; despite being physically weaker than the two boys, her speed made up for that. Sora had been caught unawares by the monster, and after taking a particularly bad blow, his health had dropped to critical. Marluxia covered for him as they struggled to destroy the creature. Finally, however, Sora summoned one last fireball and it shuddered and toppled over. As it faded, the released heart and soul combined and moved on.  
Marluxia dissipated his scythe and rested his hands on his thighs, breathing deeply. "Marluxia," Kairi said, walking over. He looked up, surprised that she'd remembered his name - usually nobody ever could. "Why did you come back?" Marluxia coughed a little, and then stood. He was much taller than even Riku.  
"You looked like you could do with some help," He shrugged. "I'll be going now, if you don't need me any more," He made the gesture to leave via a darkness portal, but Riku stopped him, expression guarded.  
"Wait. Why did you intervene, anyway? Why did you help Kairi out of the forest?" He demanded, hostile and distrusting.  
"I owe you a debt for what I did in Castle Oblivion, even if you don't remember it," Marluxia explained, but in truth, he wasn't quite sure if that really was it.  
"Since when did you have a conscience? Sora was in a coma for more than a year because of you!" Riku yelled angrily. Marluxia glared back at him, patience waning.  
"Riku, calm down. He hasn't done anything wrong," Sora tried to stop the argument. Riku looked pointedly at his younger friend.  
"Sora, you're so naїve. Don't you think it's a little suspicious? We keep running into unnaturally strong nonentities, when Leon even said that they aren't particularly strong. And then, suddenly, one of the former Organisation turns up and helps us out!"  
"I promise you, this time I have no ulterior motives. I haven't even had any contact with any of the Organisation since Sora defeated me," Marluxia tried to convince Riku. "I defeated you?" Sora questioned, confused, but nobody answered him. "Remember, he might be the only way for us to get off this world," Jiminy quietly reminded Riku. The oldest of the keyblade bearers looked carefully at the former nobody. Like Saїx, he was slightly translucent, and the tips of his hair were dark purple - presumably that ridiculous pink tinted with black. He was wearing his old Organisation coat, but the leather was crumpled and faded, damaged and repaired countless times. The fabric hung loosely off his body; it looked like he had lost weight since becoming a nonentity. His trousers were in an even worse condition than the coat, full of carelessly patched holes and rips. "Don't you want to become whole again, though?" He finally asked. Marluxia looked away, across the vast plains of this world. In the distance, he could just about see where the empty desert began.  
"One day, I suppose. Although there wouldn't be much point having a heart if I had nobody to love, would it?"  
"Then why help us?"  
"Because I have a debt to clear, I was bored, you just needed help; I don't know! Look, all this Q&A is very interesting, I'm sure, but I really ought to be going," Marluxia prepared to open a portal again.  
"Wait, don't listen to Riku," Kairi interrupted. "Look, we need your help. If you could do us just this one last favour, we won't disturb you again,"  
"What do you want?" Marluxia asked.  
"We crashed our gummy ship beyond repair, so now we can't get out of this world. But you can use darkness portals. If you could take us back to Hollow Bastion..."  
Marluxia contemplated it. "Very well. Meet me here in an hour, I'll need to go and get some things,"  
"Aren't you coming back?"  
"I'm done searching here," And then he was gone. Kairi smiled smugly at Riku, as if to say _"I told you so,"_, and Riku glared back.  
"I still don't think we should trust him," He said. "After all, he was part of the Organisation,"  
"Who's to say he can't have changed? He helped me out of the forest and again with the nonentity," Kairi replied. "She has a point, Riku. Stop worrying. What's the worst that could happen?"  
"He could abduct us," Riku suggested, earning evil glares from his companions. "Fine, but I can't help but feel like we're walking straight into a trap here,"

They were back to their usual forms by the time Marluxia returned with a bag stuffed full off odd bits and pieces that he'd picked up from the hundreds of worlds he'd been through. "Hollow Bastion, right?" He opened up a portal, gesturing for the others to go through before him. "Be careful - there's a lot of heartless around in the corridors,"  
Riku summoned his keyblade, Way to the Dawn, instinctively, preparing himself for the swarms of shadows that greeted them as they stepped into the murky, swirling darkness. Marluxia quickly opened another to lead them away from the strange place, and they stepped through into the blinding midday light of Hollow Bastion. "Thanks," Sora said to the tall man beside him. Marluxia pulled his hood up so nobody would see his strange features. "It was nothing. Might I ask a question before I leave you be?"  
"Sure," Kairi said. Marluxia reached into his pocket and pulled out a dog-eared photograph.  
"You wouldn't happen to have seen a nonentity that looks like this, would you?"  
Sora leaned over to inspect the photograph. It depicted a young woman about Aerith's age, with bright yellow hair and a cheeky grin. He shook his head, and Marluxia pocketed the picture again.  
"Sorry, it's just you and Saїx. But if we do, we'll tell her you were looking for her,"  
Marluxia nodded, satisfied by Sora's offer.  
"Thank you. Good luck, Keyblade Bearers,"  
He summoned another portal and slipped through. Soon only the faintest whispers of darkness where left where he had been.  
"Weird," Sora said. "Why was he so helpful?"  
"I don't know," Riku admitted. He had been sure that the nonentity would have been planning something. He looked out across the road to the small parade of shops and house behind them. "Well, we'd better go and see Leon and Yuffie,"  
"No need," said a feminine voice behind them. Sora spun around to see Yuffie standing, grinning, on one of the town's defensive walls. "Why are you back so quickly?"  
"Yuffie!" Sora called up to her. "Riku crashed the gummy ship and we couldn't repair it," Riku glowered in embarrassment at him, making Yuffie giggle. "It's at the Pride Lands right now,"  
"Okay, I'll send Cid to collect it. He won't be happy," Yuffie jumped down and landed with a thump. She began to run off, and Sora, Riku and Kairi followed as she led them to Merlin's house, past the busy square in the centre of the town where all kinds of stalls were set up, and people were selling their wares. "It's market day today," Yuffie explained.  
Occasionally the Claymore system was activated by a stray heartless or nobody, but the residents of Hollow Bastion weren't concerned. As they walked in to the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee's "secret hideout" (name courtesy of Yuffie), they were greeted by Cid and Aerith.  
"Where's Leon?" Yuffie asked conversationally. Cid wiped his nose.  
"Got a problem in the castle, think it could be even more heartless. He went to check it out," He said. "Why are you guys here? Not that I ain't glad to see you, but I thought you were off fighting the nonentities,"  
"Riku crashed the Gummy Ship," Sora was quick to snitch on his friend, who tried very hard not to be noticed as Cid stared comically angrily at him.  
"I'll fix it for you on one condition - you never do it again, okay?"  
"Kairi, you'd better be good at flying," Riku commented, and Kairi giggled.  
"I can't be much worse than you," She teased, and Riku glared mournfully at her.  
"Shut up,"  
"You have to admit, though, you're even worse than me!" Sora grinned. "Thanks for your help, Cid. We owe you one,"  
"You sure do. There's a spare gummy ship out the back," Cid returned to the Computer and continued to tap furiously on the keyboard. "Oh, The King left a message. He'd like you to go to Twilight Town - apparently there have been a few sightings of the nonentities there,"  
"Sure thing, we'll get to it. Come on, it's Kairi's turn now," Aerith led them to the flight platform where the gummy ships were being kept.  
"Be careful," She said as they boarded one of the strange vessels. "Good luck,"

---

"Y'know, I woulda thought that Xigbar would have gone to Port Royal as well, seeing as he's into the whole pirate thing," Axel was saying to Demyx. They were perched on top of the Bell Tower, watching over the whole town as it continued its business in eternal twilight. Demyx was wearing his full Organisation uniform, unwilling to let anyone see him, but Axel was dressed more casually in a sleeveless beige shirt with white trim, loose scarlet arm warmers and black cargo trousers. They were whiling away the hours contemplating the whereabouts of the other members - for Demyx's sake, specifically Xigbar.  
"Well, if he was there, he would have snuck by right under my nose," Demyx replied. His eyes followed the path of the little train as it chugged out of town to the beach. "Where else would he be?"  
"I don't know.. Land of Dragons, maybe? He met Sora there, right?"  
"Yeah. We could try, I guess." Somehow, Demyx doubted that he'd be there. It didn't seem logical that the place that he'd met the Keyblader would be where he was now - but the Melodious Nocturne was running out of options. "But what if he didn't fuse with a heartless? He could just be a lost soul somewhere, wandering around,"  
Axel looked thoughtfully across the horizon. "It's a thought. But I think I just fused instinctively, without even thinking about it. Probably everyone else did as well," There was a pause in the conversation as each thought about the possibilities. Axel didn't like not knowing where everyone else was. It wasn't really because he was worried about them, because he'd never really been friends with anyone other than Roxas, and he knew right where the blonde boy was at the moment. In fact, it surprised him how glad he was to see Demyx; the musician might have been annoying but at least it was someone to talk to. The reason was that they probably knew how he'd betrayed them, and if they had grouped together again there was every chance that they were planning to move against him. He let his mind wander, thinking about Castle Oblivion and how he'd managed to double-cross pretty much every one of his accomplices; he wondered why, if they'd been alive all this time, they had never come back to get him. "Hey, look, there's Sora," Demyx said, pointing to a trio entering the square. "And his friends,"  
Axel snapped around to look at the new arrivals. They hadn't noticed them, and seemed to be bickering amongst themselves. "Shall we go and say hello?" Axel grinned, turning to address Demyx.  
"May as well. Perhaps they'll know where some of the others are,"  
But Axel had already leaped off the tall building, and was soaring down to greet the keyblade bearers.  
"Axel!" Sora recognised the former nobody right away as he landed in front of the three friends. "Yo," Axel saluted, smirking. "Good to see you finally got it memorised," He laughed at some personal joke that Sora didn't understand. "Why are you here?" He demanded, keyblade at the ready. "Woah, woah, put the giant key away," Axel said, holding up his hands. "I come in peace. Honest. Just wanted to have a little friendly chat."  
"Are you with Saїx?" Riku asked.  
"Nah, it's just me and Demyx here," Axel motioned to his companion, who had landed unsteadily a few feet away. "Dunno where any of the others are. Did you want Saїx specifically?"  
"We saw him at Hollow Bastion," Kairi said. "We thought you were all back together now, apart from Marluxia,"  
"Flower boy? Where's he?"  
"He was in the Pride Lands, but we don't know where he is now," Sora filled him in.  
"Have you seen Xigbar?" Demyx interrupted, hoping for news.  
"That's the guy with the eye patch, right?"  
Demyx nodded excitedly, but Sora just shook his head apologetically. "Sorry. It's just you, Saїx and Marluxia."  
"That's okay," Demyx said, trying to hide the disappointment in his voice. "It's just that we were looking for him. Well, if you do find him somewhere, tell him that Demyx is in Twilight Town,"  
"Sure,"  
"Oh," Sora interrupted. "I was wondering, have you seen a girl nonentity around? With short blonde hair. Sort of antennae-" He tried to describe the woman in Marluxia's photograph, using his hands to emulate the strange protrusions of hair the woman bore.  
"Larxene? No, sorry. Why'd you want to see her? She's a bitch,"  
"Marluxia was looking for her," Sora explained. Axel laughed somewhat bitterly.  
"Figures. What are you doing in Twilight Town, anyway?" "There were some nonentity sightings - that's you," Kairi explained. "So we came to check it out. You're not causing any trouble, though, and there aren't that many heartless or anything so we'll probably leave soon,"  
"That's because here, they don't come out until the night," Axel explained. "When it's dark, whole swarms of them just appear, and start roaming about everywhere. They're wrecking havoc. Also a couple of times a really strong nonentity's come along, and we haven't been able to defeat it. It's like it's coming here specifically, though, which is weird. The others are more intelligent than heartless, sure, but they're not all that clever, or strong. But these ones-"  
"We've met a couple like that as well," Sora interrupted. "One at Hollow Bastion, and one in the Pride Lands,"  
"Perhaps there's someone manipulating them. Maleficent, for example," Riku suggested.  
"There's an idea," Axel said. "Why didn't I think of that?"  
"Because you're stupid?" Demyx ventured, ducking unsuccessfully as Axel took a swing for his head. "Ow!"  
"Well, we'd better get going. We need to find Hayner and the others," Sora said, laughing as Axel and Demyx battled it out. "See you later?"  
"Yeah," Axel grinned as the keyblade bearers walked off down another street in search of more of Sora's friends.

"Looks like they've all changed," Riku noted once they were out of earshot. "Maybe it really does have something to do with having a dormant heart inside them,"  
"Demyx was very different," Sora noted. "He was really annoying before,"  
"Just like you then," Riku teased, earning himself a punch. Sora was laughing, though.  
"Don't you two ever stop arguing?" Kairi sighed, finding herself the peacemaker once again, just as they turned down another road, this one a little cul-de-sac. At the end Hayner and his friends were laughing and joking.  
"Hayner! Pence! Olette!" Sora called, and they all looked up.  
"Sora!" They all ran over to greet him. "And Kairi! So this must be Riku, right?" Hayner said, waving.  
"Yeah. Riku, this is Hayner, Pence and Olette," As each name was said, each person waved so Riku knew who everyone was.  
"We have some sea salt ice cream left. You want some?" Pence invited them to come and sit down as Olette got out the cool bag with the ice creams in. She gave one to everybody, and finally settled down with one herself.  
"So what have you guys been up to? I never heard from you again after you went to that weird alternate Twilight Town," Hayner said, mouth full of ice cream.  
"We went back to our home," Sora said. "But we gotta save the world again now, from the nonentities,"  
"Are they those creepy transparent things that keep popping up everywhere?" Pence asked.  
"Yeah," Sora said. "They're souls from nobodies fused with heartless,"  
"Sounds complicated," Olette laughed.  
"Sounds cool," Pence grinned, trying to help himself to more ice cream, but Olette swatted his hand away.  
"How long are you gonna stay here?"  
"We'll probably leave tomorrow. Apparently all the heartless come out at night here,"  
"That's right, there's always hoards of them around the bell tower," Pence said. "People say it's haunted,"  
"Or there's a really powerful monster in there and all the heartless and stuff are drawn to its power," Hayner shuddered. "C'mon, let's finish those ice creams,"  
Olette handed them all out as they talked and laughed together, wasting time away before the night arrived.


	7. The Twilight Alliance

Leon came back from the old castle at a run, completely out of breath. He was carrying his gunblade at his side, and the faint wisps of darkness that clung to its blade were proof that he'd just been battling with heartless. He slammed the door behind him, gasping for breath.  
"What's wrong?" Yuffie immediately asked."Heartless," Leon panted. "The Bastion is full of them. And - Maleficent was there. She was performing some kind of ritual - it looked like she was creating a nonentity." He explained, straightening out and putting his hands behind his head to regain his breath quicker.  
"Not again," Merlin lamented. He was sitting on one of the old crates, sipping a warm mug of tea.  
"I thought there was something fishy going on with all these powerful nonentities turning up everywhere," Cid complained loudly from the storeroom. Seconds later, he came out carrying several hefty planks of wood and a bucket of nails. A hammer poked out from his trouser pocket. "Looks like it wouldn't be a good idea to go back to fixing up the Castle right now,"  
Leon shook his head.  
"The heartless will never leave us alone - but why Maleficent? What possible benefits does an old rundown castle like this one hold for her? I thought she stayed in the World that Never Was,"  
Merlin used his vast expertise in magic to answer.  
"If she's performing rituals - perhaps to create nonentities - here would be the perfect place. Radiant Garden has a strong magical aura which would aid her sorcery."  
"We need to get rid of her," Cid said as he set down the planks of wood. "But we aren't strong enough to take her down,"  
"Perhaps I could help," Came a confident voice from the doorway. It was a casual, conversational remark, tinted by a thick southern accent. Aerith turned around to face the new arrival, and recognition crossed her face.  
"Braig?"  
The man cracked a wide grin.  
"Aerith! The flower girl! Didn't expect to see you here," He shook hands firmly with her, and she noticed that his scarred arm was slightly translucent.  
"You're a nonentity?" She asked, noticing now that the street behind him was visible through his head.  
"That's a long story. I go by the name of Xigbar now," He invited himself in, shutting the old wooden door behind him with a creak. He was dressed in a loose white cotton shirt with long, wide sleeves. It was hanging out of a pair of loose brown trousers what disappeared inside beige boots half way up to his knees.  
"What're you back here for?" Cid asked, remembering the scarred man from Ansem the Wise's reign. "Thought you'd all left the town for good,"  
"As if. It's my homeworld, right? I don't like how Maleficent thinks she can just come in and take the castle any more than you dudes do." Xigbar said. "I was gonna come see Sora and his pals, but it looks like I just missed them."  
"He went to Twilight Town," Yuffie said. She was only very small when darkness had claimed Radiant Garden, and didn't know the apprentices that well, but she guessed that if Aerith could trust the odd one eyed man, then she could too. "If you wanna catch them up,"  
"Thanks. Good luck,"  
Xigbar portalled away.

---

He sliced the keyblade through the air and it split a heartless who dissolved into darkness. He swung around to fend off another, quickly moving on to a group of nobodies that were crowding around the bell tower. Thinking fast, he drew them away to fight them individually and destroyed them one by one.  
They'd been fighting since sundown and there seemed to be no end to the masses of heartless, nobodies and nonentities that had simply appeared when the sun went down. Riku ran across the square to help Kairi, who had been caught unawares by a gaggle of Soldier heartless. Elsewhere, Sora was battling against a particularly tenacious nonentity and Axel and Demyx were working with them; fighting their way out from the tower, using water and fire to eradicate all the enemies in their path. It was tiring work, but not particularly difficult; the heartless were pretty harmless and didn't take much to kill. It was simply the sheer number of them that was making it take so long. For every one that they managed to defeat, more popped up to fill the space.  
"C'mon, let's take a break," Axel panted, back to back with Demyx and firing off blazing fireballs which illuminated the square with an eerie glow. "This is getting tiring," He headed towards the side door of the tower, motioning for the keyblade bearers to follow.  
"Hope I'm not interrupting anything," Someone said from his left, just as he reached the door. He looked around, at first seeing nobody, then up. On the roof of one of the buildings, a lone person stood, guns blazing. He fired off a round of shots, destroying a dozen heartless in one go. Demyx had recognised the person's voice from the first word he'd said.  
"Xigbar!" The melodious nocturne grinned, waving. Xigbar jumped down from his viewpoint.  
"Good seeing you again, little dude," He ruffled Demyx's hair. "Looks like you need a haircut,"  
"What are you doing here?" Axel asked, pleased that another member of Organisation had been found, but he was still curious as to why the old man had turned up in Twilight Town.  
"I went back to Radiant Garden - what's left of it, anyway. Because it's my home. But looks like Maleficent is plotting something again, and like hell am I just gonna sit back and let her take over the worlds. So. I have a proposition, Keybladers. I've set up base with a few of the other Organisation members, and we're prepared to give you our services at your disposal - for your help taking down Maleficent, and, more importantly, Xemnas,"  
"What's Xemnas done?" Demyx asked, relaxing now that Xigbar was here.  
"I have intelligence that he's plotting with Maleficent. Saïx, too." The oldest explained. "That's why we need your help. Sora, you were the only one who was strong enough to defeat Xemnas - and we're gonna need that strength if we stand a chance of beating him,"  
"I don't know... Can we trust you?" Riku challenged. "How do I know that you're not going to just turn around and be with Maleficent in the end anyway?"  
"As if!" Xigbar exclaimed. "That woman has tried to take over the Castle at Radiant Garden. No way am I gonna just let her do that!"  
"Radiant Garden, that's Hollow Bastion, right?" Sora asked, and Kairi nodded. "Well, I'm in," He put his hand into the centre of the small circle that had formed.  
"Me too," Kairi agreed, placing her hand on top of his. Riku sighed.  
"Looks like I don't have a choice. I want to take down Maleficent, anyway," His hand went in.  
"Count me in!" Demyx added his gloved hand to the pile.  
"Sure," Axel put his in as well, and Xigbar followed. A silent pact was made.  
"To the Twilight Alliance," Xigbar declared, raising his hand with the others.  
"You even came up with a cheesy name for it?" Demyx laughed.  
"Dude! Not my idea," Xigbar put his hands up in defence. "It was Luxord,"  
"Who are you with at the moment, then?" Axel asked. "If Saïx is with Xemnas, and Marluxia is somewhere... who else is missing?"  
"We haven't found Zexion or Lexaeus yet. Or Larxene. But we do have Xaldin, Luxord and Vexen on our side for definite,"  
"Ugh, Vexen. Just don't make me go anywhere near him,"  
"I wouldn't be too unpleasant to him," Xigbar advised. "He's been researching ways to get Roxas back, and he's on the verge of a breakthrough. All coffee and no sleep,"  
"We could get Roxas back?" Axel looked hopeful with the possibility of seeing his best friend again.  
"Yep, in theory. Because his soul is inside you, Sora. We just need to coax him out,"  
"Oh. Well in that case, I'm really sorry I did away with him," Axel apologised, grin belying his sincere tone. It was something that always seemed unsettling to normal people about nobodies - the way their expression could completely contradict what they were saying.  
"You killed him?" Xigbar exclaimed. "Woah, no wonder he hates you. We tried getting him to talk about what happened in Castle Oblivion, but he wouldn't utter a single word. He just gave you the most evil death glare ever, or he'd just ignore you completely,"  
"You can kind of see why, though," Demyx defended. He'd childishly always seen Vexen as an older brother - believing that somehow they were linked because of their connecting elements - of course it was complete rubbish and Vexen despised him as much as all the other neophytes (if not more). Even so, he still respected Vexen - like hell would he ever be able to understand the logic behind some of the things that he did. "Talking about my death is pretty hard even for me,"  
"Yeah, sorry about that," Sora looked a little uneasy. It was easy to forget that behind their casual words and friendly expressions that they had all endured the pain of death - two of whom at his hands. Demyx shook it off, however. He wasn't going to be the only one holding a grudge.  
"Heh, consider yourself lucky. You killed all the nice ones," Axel grinned. "I have Vexen's wrath to deal with when he finds me. And Marluxia. He is gonna be pissed."  
"What did you do to him?"  
"I double crossed him. And he can hold grudges almost as long as Vexen," Axel shuddered, remembering something. "He still hasn't forgiven me for destroying his garden all that time ago,"  
"So it was you!" Demyx said, accusingly.  
"Who didn't know that?"  
"Um... me?"  
"Anyway..." Xigbar interrupted the developing argument. "Do you guys wanna come back to our hideout? It's in the Land of Dragons. It's dead of winter there at the moment, so we might have time for some epic winter sports on the way," He opened up a shimmering portal - a mode of transport that the three keyblade bearers were becoming more and more used to. They all stepped through into the darkness corridors, and then back out into a crisp, clear night in a valley filled with white snow. Starlight glinted off the icy peaks of a range of nearby mountains, and the cool night air blew softly down the valley's sides.  
Nearby there was a small hut, partially hidden by snow. Xigbar lead them towards it, feet floating barely an inch above the ground so as not to get stuck in the snow. The others were all forced to plough clumsily through it, however. Eventually they reached the small door of the cottage and Xigbar rapped on it. The noise echoed out across the valley. When nobody answered, he shouted in through the window.  
"Oi! Open up! It's Xigbar!"  
Eventually the door was opened by Vexen, dressed in striped pyjamas.  
"Well, I'm sorry if you had to drag me out of bed in the dead of night," He complained, squinting into the darkness. "Who's with you?"  
"I thought you'd be up still. Pulling another all nighter," Xigbar replied.  
"I have the formula worked out. Finally indulging in some sleep and you interrupted me," Vexen grumbled.  
"I have the Keyblade Bearers, plus Demyx and Axel,"  
Upon mentioning the pyromaniac's name, Vexen froze.  
"He is not coming in here," He finally managed to spit out. His voice was pure venom, and there was undiluted hatred in his eyes. Axel looked a little uneasy, scratching the back of his head through force of habit.  
"Tough. Look, he's not that bad, dude,"  
Vexen slammed the door on them all, and Xigbar pounded on it again.  
"Fine! He can sleep outside! Just let me in! I'm cold!"  
"I'm not opening the door until he is off this world. Preferably dead." Came Vexen's muffled voice from inside. The futile argument might have continued, but there was a scuffle from the other side of the door and finally Xaldin opened the door. Vexen was glaring at them all from the floor.  
"Xigbar, keep your voice down," Xaldin said as he ushered them all in. "Luxord's still asleep,"  
"Sorry, dude," The scarred man apologised. "I just wanted to get out of the cold,"  
"I noticed," Xaldin said, dryly. "Everyone, there's a few spare rooms down the corridor," He motioned to the long hallway behind him. The cottage was larger on the inside than it looked. It must have actually been built into the mountainside or something. "We'll talk tomorrow when everyone's awake and Vexen's sane again,"  
There was a quiet "hey!" from the room adjacent to them, but Vexen was too busy avoiding Axel to come out and argue.  
"We'll see you in the morning, then," Xaldin slipped into his own room, and Xigbar showed everyone else where the free bedrooms were.  
"'Night," Demyx whispered to everyone before they he and Axel retired.  
Riku, however, collected Kairi and infiltrated Sora's room.  
"We need to talk," He began once they were settled. Sora was sitting propped up on a few pillows on his bed, with Kairi perched on the end. Riku claimed the armchair next to the bed. "I know you're probably getting bored of this from me now, but I don't know if we can trust them. You know what they tried to do before,"  
"That was just because they wanted their hearts back," Sora defended. "Anyway, Xigbar said it himself - he just doesn't want his hometown taken over by Maleficent,"  
"They can't be that bad if they want to stop her,"  
"But when Saïx and Marluxia both appeared to help us fighting those nonentities - how did they know we were there? It can't have just been coincidence, right? And that Xigbar turns up in Twilight Town just when we're there. How did he know where we were?"  
"I'm sure there's a reason." Kairi brushed it off.  
Riku sighed.  
"Obviously neither of you have considered the remote possibility that this might just be a trap," He said sarcastically.  
"Organisation XIII never worked with Maleficent before; why would they want to now?" Sora pointed out.  
"If they wanted to take her down, why would they need our help? Sure, Vexen's a useless fighter but the others are all pretty strong. They could take her down if they wanted to,"  
"But it's really Xemnas that they need help with defeating. Perhaps none of them are powerful enough to defeat him. He is the strongest of the nobodies, after all," Sora said.  
"All together, they could beat him," Riku insisted.  
"Actually, we couldn't," Someone - Vexen - said from the doorway. "I happened to overhear part of your conversation. And Xemnas - at least for any of us - is undefeatable."  
"Why?"  
"Do you remember what his power is? Nothingness. That means that, for nobodies or any incomplete beings as we are now, he can sap our powers. Just like that. No matter how hard we train, or how strong we are, we can't destroy him. That's why he was Superior," Vexen explained. "Marluxia knew that. That's why he planned to use you to overthrow the Organisation - because you would be immune to his power,"  
Sora looked at Riku triumphantly, even if he didn't understand what Vexen was talking about for the last part.  
"See? I told you there was a reason," He said. "Maybe you should try and trust your heart a little bit more,"  
"I promise you, we're not planning anything. Even Xigbar has that much decency left in him," Vexen said as Riku got up to go to bed.  
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, then," He brushed past Vexen to find his own bedroom, and the tall nonentity drifted off as well.  
"I'm worried about Riku," Kairi said after he had left. "He doesn't seem happy about all of this,"  
"It's his fault," Sora said stubbornly. "He shouldn't be so mistrusting,"  
"I guess," Kairi pondered. "Anyway, I'd better say good night now,"  
"Yeah. Night," Sora grinned childishly. Kairi left, and he quickly changed and settled down into his bed.

"_I'm worried about the other former Organisation members," Maleficent said. Her companion, Xemnas, seemed unconcerned.  
"We still need to locate them, but once we do, it'll be easy to bring them over to our side. And then they can be used for fighting - the ones that had the sense to fuse with strong heartless, anyway. The others I can just dispose of." He said, gestures accompanying his words.  
"What does Saïx say about all of this?" She asked.  
"It would be better if he didn't know about the second plan. After all, he is particularly strong,"  
"Of course," Maleficent grinned. "There is nothing more annoying than incompetence subordinates,"  
"I'm surprised that you didn't ditch that fool - what was his name? Pete? Earlier. He was only dragging you down,"  
"They all failed me in the end," Maleficent said, anger creeping into her voice. "This time, I will make no room for failure,"  
"Are you sure that none of the keyblade bearers suspect the placement of your nonentities?"  
"Certain. Riku is the only one we should be concerned about, but he can't do much with Sora and Kairi, both naïve fools, blocking his way."  
"Very well. Anyway, I'd better get back to locating the others. Apparently there's been disturbance in the darkness corridors leading to the Deep Jungle in the past few days," Xemnas stood up to leave through one of the many exits that the room had. Maleficent nodded with a malicious smile.  
"Until next time then. But you'd better hurry up finding the others before they find themselves," She followed him out of the west wing door.  
Just outside the east door, Saïx let out a heavy breath, suddenly unsure of his role in their plan. Was Xemnas just viewing him as another lackey? Saïx had always put absolute trust into Xemnas, and wanted to believe that the silver-haired man was just saying those things to Maleficent to deceive her. But it seemed otherwise. He wandered away, thoughts turbulent._


	8. In Which Pancakes Are Consumed

The sun dawned bright and early in the morning, and nothing stirred in the peaceful valley. In the night, snow must have fallen, because there was no trace left of the footprints that Sora and his friends had made last night. Against the mountains' white backdrop, the snow covered cottage was all but invisible.  
Luxord arrived in the kitchen just as Xaldin was putting the finishing touches on breakfast.  
"Go wake the others," The side burned man commanded. "Tell them that grub's up,"  
"Good morning to you, too," Luxord smiled wryly, but he hung around in the doorway as if to leave. "Did Xigbar return successfully last night?"  
"Yeah. We've got the Keyblade Bearers on our side now. We still need the details, but Xigbar promised the explain it all this morning," Xaldin set out nine plates around a large mahogany table, and put a steaming pile of syrupy pancakes in the middle. "Also, Demyx and Axel are here. They must have been at Hollow Bastion or something,"  
Luxord nodded, eyeing up the pancakes with a certain degree of interest.  
"I say, how about we have those pancakes now? Give the others the blissful lie in they seem to so greatly crave?" He suggested craftily. Xaldin smacked him over the head with a wooden spoon.  
"Stop being greedy and get the others. I might be able to give you an extra half for being on time," Of course, Luxord was always on time - he had his element to thanks for that - but Xaldin still shooed the British man away from the tempting food on the kitchen table. Seconds later, Demyx came in, licking his lips. Xaldin noticed that he'd cut his hair and shaved the sides of his head again. He looked better that way.  
"I thought something smelled nice. Good thing I didn't wake Axel or Xigbar," He rubbed his tummy, stealing a seat.  
"Don't help yourself just yet," Xaldin was still frying more pancakes. Spending the best part of three years catering for twelve hungry men had taught him that you could never cook too much food. "The others need to get here first. Luxord's collecting them up now,"  
Demyx pouted, staring longingly at the pancakes, but he didn't have to wait for long. The others all dribbled in a few minutes later, herded into the kitchen by Luxord and enticed by the promise of pancakes. They all took seats around the table, eagerly anticipating the delicious breakfast.  
"Where's Vexen?" Xaldin asked as he handed out pancakes for everybody.  
"He wouldn't come out," Luxord replied. "Because of Axel, he said," The blonde man turned to the Flurry of Dancing Flames. "What did you do, anyway?"  
"I killed him,"  
Axel's features were set perfectly straight. Luxord stared at him with a horrified expression on his face, but then Xigbar laughed out loud and he relaxed, realising that it was just a joke. "No, really," Axel said.  
"Shi- seriously? Why?!" Luxord exclaimed, nearly choking on his tea and only just managing not to swear.  
"Marluxia's order. Vexen got in the way and was ruining his takeover plan. It's a long story. But I never much liked the old geezer anyway," Axel tried to dismiss the whole matter, but by now the others who hadn't known before were curious. As they talked, Sora leaned over to Riku.  
"I think that I remember that," He whispered. "I was there when Axel killed Vexen. It was in Twilight Town," Sora fell silent as the memories of Vexen's death, hidden away by Naminé, returned to him.  
The conversation moved on, and when Vexen still didn't arrive, Xaldin made him a mug of coffee and left with the last plate of pancakes. That way the scientist would at least have something for breakfast. If left to his own devices, he tended to forget to eat anything at all - part of the reason for why he was so thin (the other being a high metabolism inherited from his parents. He also seemed to get a lot of exercise for his chosen profession, from running up and down stairs to complain at people and all that pacing he did). Xaldin balanced the mug of coffee in midair, and used his free hand to knock on the door.  
"Who's there?" Vexen asked from inside his room.  
"Xaldin. I have breakfast for you. Coffee and pancakes," Xaldin replied, and Vexen opened the door to let him in, gratefully accepting the meal that his old friend offered him. He sat down in the creaky old chair in the corner of the room, and Xaldin leant against the wall next to the door.  
"So are you planning on coming out of your room any time soon?" He asked Vexen.  
"Not until Axel leaves," Vexen replied, glaring into his coffee.  
"He told me what happened," Xaldin said, trying to win over the difficult man's trust.  
"And no doubt he was boasting about it,"  
"He wasn't particularly proud about what he did," Xaldin could see that Vexen wasn't going to co-operate. "Look, I know you don't like him, but we all need to work together if we want to even have a chance of defeating Xemnas, Maleficent and who knows who else? They could have located any of the others by now and converted them to their cause,"  
Vexen looked torn between anger and sadness.  
"It's easy for you! My murderer is sitting in the next room!!" He finally exploded, rage bubbling up and brimming over in spite of himself.  
"So's mine. Remember, Sora killed almost all of us," Xaldin reminded Vexen.  
"He was just doing what he foolishly thought was right,"  
"In a way, so was Axel. He needed to keep up the appearance of being with Marluxia right up until the end. Unfortunately, that meant killing you,"  
"Don't you _dare_ try to justify my death!!" Vexen yelled, standing up sharply. He'd finished his coffee, but the pancakes had been left on the desk, cold and forgotten.  
"Sorry. I meant no offence. Sit down," Xaldin replied quickly. "All I'm saying is that maybe you should just let it go. It was a long time ago. Now eat your breakfast - we have a lot to do today,"  
Vexen's anger deflated and he slumped back onto the chair, staring at the thickly carpeted floor.  
"I know. I just... I can't get that memory out of my head," He said, putting the plate on his lap and carefully rolling up the top pancake. He sliced off the end with his fork.  
"I guess it's something that we'll just have to deal with," Xaldin murmured. Some time passed as Vexen ate quietly. "So are you ready to come out now?"  
Vexen chewed slowly and thoughtfully, and then swallowed silently. "Well?"  
"I'll be through in a minute," Vexen finally said, voice low. Xaldin pushed himself off the wall and opened the door.  
"Okay. Xigbar wants to do some skiing or snowboarding today. You up for it?"  
Vexen shook his head.  
"Not today. I need to do a few final tests on the formula," Vexen motioned to a high stack of scrawled notes on the desk. Xaldin nodded, understanding from his days as an apprentice and researcher of Ansem the Wise.  
"Do you need help?" He asked, but Vexen shook his head, setting down the now empty plate.  
"You go and have fun with Xigbar," He said. "If I work on the formula today I should be finished by the end of the afternoon,"  
"Sure," Xaldin knew not to try and argue because Vexen was a die-hard workaholic. "See you later, then. We'll probably leave soon,"  
"How long are you staying out for?" Vexen asked, turning around to sort out some of his notes. Glancing at the mirror, he quickly straightened out his hair before turning back to his work.  
"All day. Luxord might go and try to track Larxene, though. We have a lead on a female nonentity in Paris, I think,"  
"Okay. I'll join you if I finish by lunchtime," Vexen picked his notes up and prepared to leave, but Xigbar appeared in the doorway.  
"How's it hanging with you guys?"  
He grinned lopsidedly; he had done ever since receiving the scar on his left cheek.  
"Great," Xaldin said flatly, ducking underneath Xigbar's arm and disappearing out of the door.  
"Vexen? Sorry about the whole Axel thing, dude. I didn't realise what happened,"  
"Don't mention it," Vexen muttered. "Ever,"  
He, too, slipped out into the corridor and down a twisting spiral staircase that lead to the underground lab.

---

The small Parisian café was empty enough to provide decent privacy, but there were enough people there that all the waiters were preoccupied by others sufficiently enough that they took little notice of her. Nearby, a street musician was playing a slow, romantic serenade and the music drifted up softly towards the still, clear sky. The smell of coffee and freshly baked pastries mingled with the general hubbub of the quiet city evening.  
Not so pleasant was the movement of heartless in the shadows in the alleyways and streets by the tall buildings. She watched them collect in the darkness, unseen by the residents of that world. They were worrying her, because they hadn't attacked anybody yet - and that meant that something was controlling them, because otherwise they would already be seeking out the hearts of those around them.  
One of the waiters - a young, clean shaven man, arrived at her table, asking if she wanted anything else. She shook her head, antennae like protrusions of hair swinging with the movement. Pulling out a few munny from her pocket to pay for her hot chocolate, she stood up and left.  
Larxene liked this world. It was civilised enough to have comfortable beds and good food, but still had that homey touch of primitive savageness and corruption that some of the more technologically advanced worlds seemed to lack. Also, its residents were all both friendly and stupid - too stupid to notice that underneath her make up, Larxene was translucent.  
Her apartment - she'd finally invested in one a few months ago - was a few streets from the café, so she began to walk briskly down the well-lit avenues, dipping in and out of the shadows as she walked past the ornate street lamps lining the cobbled pavements. As she turned a corner into a darker, empty road, she noticed that she was being followed by a man in black. She sped up slightly, and the footsteps behind her matched her pace. They were quiet, barely audible, but they had the kind of sound to them that the owner wasn't trying as hard as he could not to be noticed. Larxene slowed down, knowing that if he hadn't actually been following her, he would overtake. However, the footsteps just disappeared completely. She stopped, listening out for any noises at all - footsteps, breathing, even the rustling of clothes - and avoiding the urge to turn around. There was absolutely nothing.  
"Boo." Said a deep voice, very suddenly, right next to Larxene's ear. She shrieked, spinning around, kunai at the ready. How the hell did he manage to sneak up on her like that?! But then she realised, embarrassingly, who the man was.  
"Marluxia!!" She exclaimed, dissolving her kunai. "Don't ever do that again! You're lucky I didn't electrocute you on the spot! What the hell are you doing here?"  
Marluxia laughed, stepping forwards to give his best friend a hug.  
"Sorry, Larx, I just couldn't help it, seeing you here of all places. And I could ask the same question of you,"  
"I like this place," Larxene replied, wrapping her arms around him, noticing that he felt a lot thinner than she remembered. Eventually she let go and started walking again, and Marluxia fell into step beside her. "All the people here are total idiots,"  
"But this is Paris!" Marluxia exclaimed, putting on the most terrible French accent. "Home to the greatest artistic minds of all time! The architects behind masterpieces like the Eiffel Tower!"  
"You know what the locals call it here? 'The tragic lamppost'," Larxene told him. Marluxia smiled.  
"Well, I never much liked the thing myself. I just thought I'd make a point," He paused for a while, as if thinking. And then finally, a little quieter than before, "I missed you,"  
"You still didn't say why you were here," Larxene, never one for sentimentalities, reminded him.  
"No. I'm here on business, actually."  
"What kind of business?" Larxene was curious.  
"I met the Keyblade Bearers in the Pride Lands. You know what we are now - they call us 'nonentities'. Anyway, I agreed to help them clear the worlds of heartless and things, and I noticed there's a lot of heartless activity here,"  
"Why would you want to help them?"  
"Well, I was doing a lot of travelling through the worlds anyway," Marluxia explained. "Good thing I did agree to it. I'd never have thought of looking for you in this world,"  
"Yeah," Larxene agreed. They'd reached her apartment and she fumbled in her pocket for the key. Eventually she pulled it out, and unlocked the door.  
"Nice interior design," Marluxia whistled. The hallway's numerous mirrors reflected light onto several (probably stolen) hanging masterpieces - Marluxia recognised at least one Monet among the paintings. It had a tiled floor and white washed walls so reminiscent of Castle Oblivion, and it opened out into a roomy lounge which boasted a huge flat-screen television and a comfy looking sofa. From there, there were two rooms off to each side, and enormous French windows with a balcony full of plants behind them. On one side of the lounge was an old looking wooden piano.  
"I never knew you played," Marluxia opened up its lid to reveal a myriad of black and white keys. He sounded a little disappointed that there was something about his best friend that he didn't know. Then again, they hadn't seen each other for the best part of two years. There'd be a lot to catch up on.  
"Since you weren't here to amuse me, I had to have something to do whilst I wasn't out fighting heartless," Larxene laughed. "Aside from watching TV,"  
"I didn't think they'd invented televisions here yet," Marluxia said, looking at the wide screen TV in the corner of the room with what looked like an eye of slight suspicion.  
"Oh, that was from some other world. I go out and get DVDs occasionally, to watch, since there's no TV signal here," She sat down on the stool by the piano and shuffled around the music sheets on the stand. "Want to hear? It's not quite Demyx standard yet,"  
"Sure," Marluxia stood beside her as she found the right score. Then, she began to play, carefully making sure that she had all the right notes arranged in her mind before she played them. Marluxia recognised the song - he'd learnt it before he'd become a nobody. He tried to recall the lyrics, humming quietly along to the tune.  
"You know it?" Larxene heard his humming. "I wish I knew what the words were," The music trundled on, picking up speed as she gained confidence. Marluxia thought hard, but only the odd word or two was popping up in his mind. Yet he was sure that he'd known the song well, that it had been ingrained into his memory.  
Eventually the music ended.  
"That wasn't bad," Marluxia said. "Do you have any duets?" He sat down on the end of the stool, and Larxene shuffled over a little to make room for him. Marluxia pulled some of the music from the stand, flicking through it.  
"I didn't know you could play as well," Larxene said, also looking through the paper.  
"My mother taught me," Marluxia remembered his family fondly.  
"My mother was a bitch," Larxene replied.  
"I see where you get it from,"  
Larxene whacked him around the face, laughing as she sent his pink hair flying. And the conversation moved on.  
"How do you manage to live so openly here, anyway?" Marluxia asked her as they worked on a duet together. They kept starting at different times and getting themselves out of sync.  
"I've got it all sussed. All I need to do is put on a load of foundation and dye my hair, and honestly nobody notices. I always wear gloves, though," She'd taken her gloves off now she was inside, and it was easy to see the piano keys beneath them.  
"Clever. I don't want to dye my hair, though. I don't think I could find any dye the right shade,"  
"I still can't believe that it's naturally that colour," Larxene laughed, looking at the dusty pink colour of his hair. Marluxia pulled a lock into view.  
"It's always been this way, ever since I could remember," He explained.  
"Unlucky," Larxene laughed. "Why didn't you dye it?"  
"I prefer it pink," Marluxia says. "It's more unique, you know? Makes a statement,"  
"People think you're gay," Larxene reminded him. She would never forget how Roxas honest to goodness believed that Marluxia was trying to hit on him after Axel told him that he was gay.  
"I think that men should be allowed freedom of expression," Marluxia defended. "If a woman wears a shirt and trousers she doesn't get called a lesbian, but if a man likes pink he's automatically homosexual,"  
"That's a point. I never thought of it in that way. But it's not just the pink hair. There's also the whole flowers thing, those cherry blossom petals whenever you portal... I could go on,"  
"I assure you, the petals were completely unintentional," Marluxia said, but slight pink tint did come to his cheeks.  
"Sure, sure. I think you just liked being surrounded by pink sparkles everywhere you went," Larxene grinned. "And there's also that dress-"  
"That was Xigbar's." Marluxia quickly cut her off before she could remind him. "What did you do for your initiation dare, anyway? The whole dress thing wouldn't have worked on you,"  
Now it was Larxene's turn to blush and look away.  
"You honestly don't want to know," she said darkly. Marluxia shoved her lightly with his shoulder.  
"Oh, come on. It can't be that bad. Axel had to wear a Sailor Moon costume to one of the meetings. You can't get much worse than that,"  
"You _can_," Larxene glared at him. "Let's talk about something else now."  
"No. What did they make you do?" Marluxia was becoming more and more curious as Larxene denied him knowledge.  
"You can't make me tell you,"  
"I bet I can,"  
"I'll tell you later. Do you want to eat any time soon, by the way?" Larxene quickly changed the subject. "What do you want? I think there's still some stuff in the larder, or we could eat out,"  
"I already ate," Marluxia explained. "Although another meal wouldn't go amiss. You have no idea how difficult it is to find decent food in some of the worlds I passed through. It really has been savage living,"  
"I'm surprised at you," Larxene said. "I thought you'd have settled down somewhere and we'd never see each other again. End of story,"  
Marluxia gave Larxene an unnoticed baleful look.  
"I couldn't just forget about you," He replied. The duet was left on the music stand, forgotten.  
"Yeah, well. I did look for you; but there are so many worlds and I didn't even know if you were alive. I wasn't going to let myself get hung up on some guy I was best friends with a few years back," She knew that her words might have seemed harsh, but Marluxia knew her well enough not to take it badly.  
"All about the here and now," Marluxia smiled, recalling the old conversation they'd had, way back in the day. Living in the present was the whole basis of Larxene's existence, and not even his underlying nostalgia would have been able to change that. "Don't worry, I won't hold it against you. The point is we're back together and you haven't been stolen away by another man,"  
"I'm not desperate enough to cover my whole body with foundation," Larxene pointed out. Marluxia opened his mouth to reply, but then something changed.  
They both noticed the change in darkness above the constant movement of heartless. Seconds later there was a knock on the door.  
"I'll get it," Larxene said.  
"Be careful - it could be Xemnas,"  
"If it is we can just leg it. There's access from the balcony," The Organisation's only girl disappeared into the hallway.  
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Luxord was standing outside in a smart looking suit and top hat. "I've come to talk to you, but I heard voices. Do you have a man with you?"  
"Are you with Xemnas?" Larxene was immediately distrustful. It wasn't that she didn't want to have anything to do with the gambler, in fact she'd got on surprisingly well with him before Castle Oblivion, but she wasn't going to let on that Marluxia was here if Luxord was working for Xemnas - he must have known that they were both traitors and the consequences would be dire if they were to be caught.  
"Heavens, no!" Luxord replied, aghast. "Look, I need to talk to you, about the Organisation, and the Keyblade Bearers. May I come in?"  
Of all the nobodies, Luxord was one of the less annoying ones. At times, he could be quite pleasant, and at least treated Larxene decently. Presumably some British chivalry oath that he'd taken or something. She figured that she could trust the amiable man.  
"Sure. Marluxia's with me,"  
"Excellent! That saves me a lot of trouble looking for him later," Luxord stepped in out of the cold, taking his hat and coat off and hanging them on the coat stand. He also pulled off his gloves, placing them in his pockets.  
"So why are you here?" Larxene asked, leading him into the lounge and taking a seat. Marluxia was already sitting on the sofa and she sat down next to him, leaning up against her old friend as she rested her feet on the other end of the sofa.  
"Xemnas is plotting to take over or at worst destroy the world with Maleficent," Luxord quickly explained. "And they need to be stopped."  
"What has this got to do with us?" Marluxia asked.  
"We don't want any of the other former Organisation members to be on his side, so it's been a race to find them all first. So far, we've been lucky. We have all but Lexaeus and Zexion on our side now, except Saïx who we're pretty sure is already with Xemnas," He straightened himself up a little, preparing to cut straight to the chase. "So I have a proposition for you. You have three choices. Firstly, you can stay out of this entire thing completely. I won't force either of you to pick a side. However, that means that Xemnas could be able to find you, and he might not take no as an answer. Secondly, you can join our cause against Xemnas. Or you can join Xemnas himself, but then you will end up fighting us. And it won't be pretty. We have the Keyblade Bearers with us."  
"Xemnas won't want us," Marluxia said. "We're traitors. If he did find us, we'd be dead within seconds,"  
"You have the Keybladers? How did you manage that?" Larxene asked.  
"You'll have to ask Xigbar. So what'll it be?"  
"I'm already helping Sora and his friends, so I guess I'm in," Marluxia said.  
"Anything to take down Xemnas," With a grin, Larxene agreed. "I want to pack up my things first, though. Give me a few minutes?"  
"Of course," Luxord nodded, pleased with the results. Two more people in their group meant an even higher chance of being able to defeat Xemnas, even though ultimately it would be up to Sora, Riku and Kairi to take down the Organisation's former superior. But it would be the nonentities' job to defeat Maleficent and whoever she had on her side. "This is going to be one hell of a fight," He muttered half to himself.  
"It better be worth it," Marluxia replied, hearing what he said. "Do you think we'll ever become complete again?"  
"I just consider myself lucky that I survived. I mean, one miraculous return from the dead is more than enough for me, let alone two. I could never wish for more. And this power that is afforded to us - my time control, and your power over plants,"  
"I never thought about it in that way," Marluxia nodded thoughtfully.  
"It's all too easy only to see the bad side of things when you're seeped in darkness," Luxord murmured, but before anything else could be said, Larxene returned with a bag crammed with things. "Okay, I'm ready to go,"  
Luxord opened up a portal, but before they went through, Marluxia stopped Larxene.  
"Wait. Is Vexen with you?"  
"Yes, why?"  
"He is going to be so angry with me. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to go anywhere near him,"  
"Oh, about that. He was rather annoyed by Axel's presence when he arrived last night," Luxord said, remembering how the scientist had refused point blank to come out of his room, despite Xaldin's best persuasion. "Still, I'm sure you'll be able to work something out,"  
"Yeah - I want to see all the others," Larxene grinned.  
"You do?" Marluxia was surprised. "I thought you hated them all,"  
"I do. I just enjoyed pissing the hell out of them all the time. Let's go,"  
She switched the light in the lounge off and they stepped through into the swirling darkness of the corridors. Behind them, heartless collected around where the concentration of dark power had been, pawing at thin air.


	9. True Loyalty

"I've been trying, Maleficent. It's just that they're moving too fast - every lead that I get just ends with nothing," Saïx tried to explain, secretly wishing the stupid woman dead. He hated her stupid superiority complex - and the fact that she seemed to think of him as just one of Xemnas's lackeys. He knew that he wasn't - he was one of the Organisation's Superior's most trusted accomplices - not only strong but intelligent, too.  
"Well, you'll just have to try harder. We need to find them before they find each other," Maleficent looked down at him with cruel eyes, grotesque shadows from the cold, hard light cast onto her insipid face. "Perhaps," Her voice was dripping with sarcasm, as if she didn't believe that Saïx was capable of doing anything remotely intelligence based, "You should first distinguish which hints you get are real and which are not,"  
"Of course," Saïx replied with equal amounts of venom lining his words. He quickly left before she could say anything else, amazed at how Xemnas could stand her. Saïx stalked the corridors of Castle Oblivion, thinking hard, about Maleficent and her conversation with Xemnas the other day. Was he just being used? He didn't want to go to Xemnas, because he would sound distrusting if he were to question their allegiance. Or was it because he was afraid of the repercussions?  
He reached his room and slipped inside, grateful to be away from the dreamlike marble corridors of the castle. Inside, the room was dark and cluttered. On one side was a simple metal framework of a bed, the mattress and bed sheets on top savagely ripped apart. The floor was littered with paperwork, clothes and empty bottles and packets. On the desk there were several cups and mugs awaiting washing - nearly all of them chipped. The curtains were almost always drawn, but splinters of light shone through the rips. Saïx settled himself down on the old chair beside his table and checked any of the mugs for a drink, but they were all empty. He sighed, picking them all up and carrying them to the sink in the corner of the room. He quickly washed them all out, before returning all but one to the cupboard. The other one he filled with water and took a long gulp. Then he returned to the desk and flicked on the old lamp. It illuminated all the paperwork he had filling up the worktop. He shifted through the paper carefully, searching for any more clues as to the whereabouts of any of the members. The Land of Dragons... there had been a lot of sightings there. He summoned a dusk from around that area and spoke briefly to it. A few moments after it had disappeared again, he too opened a portal and slipped through. Xemnas needed to know this.

---

"S'mad, huh,"  
Larxene flopped onto her bed with a sigh. Luxord had introduced them to everybody staying at the hut a little earlier, and then dropped them off in the second to last bedroom in the house and left them to amuse themselves.  
"I'll admit that it's one hell of a coincidence that suddenly half the Organisation is here," Marluxia agreed, pulling off his old, worn out boots. He really ought to have invested in a replacement pair, but munny was hard enough to come by that they'd just had to do.  
"Think that something's up?"  
Marluxia contemplated for a while.  
"I don't think so. Their story seems pretty solid to me," He shrugged off his heavy coat and dropped it on his boots. "Hm. I really ought to have brought a spare change of clothes,"  
Larxene threw him an old shirt and he caught it purely on reflex.  
"This is mine," He commented. He thought he'd lost the thing - high quality white cotton, with long, loose sleeves - years back.  
"Yeah, well, I never had a chance to return it," Larxene shrugged. Offhand, Marluxia wondered just how many of his things she'd hoarded among the masses of junk she insisted on collecting over the years. He slipped the shirt on over his head and buttoned it up halfway.  
"You went back to Castle Oblivion, then," He observed. Marluxia had awoken as a lost soul with nothing aside from the clothes he'd been wearing, and there was no way that this was the shirt Larxene was wearing when Sora defeated her.  
"I wanted to get some of my stuff once I decided to settle down," She explained. Marluxia gave her a steady look, gesturing to the shirt. "Bah," She finally admitted. "I'm allowed to be sentimental sometimes. Anyway, I like that shirt. Comfortable. Still smells like you,"  
"Roll it in a rose bush and anything could smell like me," Marluxia laughed, sitting down next to Larxene's lounging form on the bed.  
"Nah. I'd say... roll in every single type of flower, ever, through a dew-soaked meadow and _then_ in a rose bush, and it'd smell like you,"  
"And she's discovered my daily hygiene ritual," Marluxia intoned sarcastically. Larxene shook her head, giggling.  
"Okay. Maybe I missed you a little bit,"  
"Only a little?"  
"Oh, come on. I kept your shirt. That's enough sappiness for today," Larxene said, punching Marluxia's hip. "It's good to have you back, partner,"  
"Of course,"  
There was silence for a little while.  
"You know, I've been wondering what sex would be like translucent,"  
"_Subtle_."

---

"Someone just entered this world via a darkness portal," Xaldin said as his finely tuned senses registered the tilt in balance between darkness and light. It was late morning, and he was waiting in the hut with Vexen for the others to return. Three powerful nonentities had appeared in different worlds earlier this morning and they had decided to split up to defeat them all. Marluxia and Larxene had gone with Luxord to Deep Jungle, the Keyblade bearers were in the Olympus Coliseum and the final nonentity was being fought by Demyx, Xigbar and Axel. Xaldin and Vexen, the last two members, agreed to hold fort in the Land of Dragons in case anything happened.  
"How close?" Vexen asked. Xaldin moved over to the window, pulling back the curtain.  
"Very. I should be able to see him here-shit."  
"What?" Vexen demanded, also looking out of the window.  
"Saïx," Xaldin's voice was grave. "They must have found out where we are. Just when we were divided - this has to have been planned. I thought it was odd that three nonentities would appear at the same time,"  
"What do we do?" Vexen asked fearfully. He backed away slightly from the window.  
"I'll go out and fight him. You go and get the others back as quickly as possible. If we're going to move somewhere, we need to be together,"  
"You can't-! He's stronger than you!" Vexen exclaimed, eyes just a little wider than usual.  
"I have to try and hold him off for a while. Who knows - maybe I can negotiate without a fight. Thanks for the encouragement, Vexen," Xaldin replied wryly, opening up a portal to disappear inside the black. A little way away down the valley, Vexen could see another portal open and Xaldin step out, greeting Saïx. Suddenly he didn't know what to do - Xaldin had asked him to find the other members, but he was worried for his friend and wanted to be there to provide backup if things turned nasty. Although, Saïx was a particularly daunting enemy, and he wasn't sure if he would have enough courage to intervene. He reminded himself grimly that he was a scientist, not a warrior. It would be better to let the strong members to do the fighting, he decided, opening a portal to the Olympus Coliseum.  
"Saïx. I didn't expect to see you here," Xaldin remarked conversationally.  
"Yes. Such a coincidence," The berserker nobody replied flatly. Xaldin frowned. Saïx really did take his existence of a nobody to heart. Well, he would have done if he'd had one. "Is anybody else with you?" He asked the question as if he already knew the answer.  
"No, it's just me here," Xaldin replied. "I've been looking for everyone else, but it was unsuccessful,"  
Saïx gave a cool glare, not quite believing his tale.  
"A pity. I had detected a lot of activity to and from this world and thought that maybe there would be more than just you,"  
"Sorry," Xaldin tried to smile, but it was like Saïx had simply sapped all his emotions.  
"Xemnas wants you," Saïx told him bluntly. "We are reforming the Organisation."  
"Sorry, not interested. I want to live out my own life now," Xaldin knew he was making a bad move defying Saïx. He hoped that Vexen would return soon, preferably with backup.  
"You don't have an option," Somehow Saïx's tone had become even colder, and it was bordering on brutal. "I've come to collect any of the former nobodies that are here. I'm sure you're not the only one," He also stepped a line, challenging Xaldin's alibi.  
"Why do you need us so much?" Xaldin bit back, trying to provoke Saïx further.  
"Without alignment, you are a liability,"  
"I'm not sure I want to join your "Organisation". Just doesn't sound like my cup of tea,"  
Saïx glared at him with all the cold bitterness he was capable of.  
"You're foolish to do this. My orders are to take you back by any means necessary," He summoned his giant Claymore, wielding it easily with one hand. Xaldin had to think quickly. He had the advantage of several long range weapons, so he should be able to hold Saïx off for long enough provided that he kept his distance.  
"Still following Xemnas' every command?" Xaldin teased, leaping out of the way as Saïx swung his blade at him. "Following him around like a puppy, no doubt,"  
"Shut up!" Saïx yelled, charging, his eyes turning opaque and yellow as he turned berserker. Just what Xaldin had been planning - in this form, Saïx lost his intelligence and would tire a lot more easily - hopefully quicker that the Whirlwind Lancer would. Xaldin called his spears to him, and they materialised everywhere, striking Saïx down from several angles. He recalled them, grinning.  
"You bastard!" Saïx screamed. "Play by the rules!"  
"Who's rules? Xemnas's?" Xaldin tormented the Lunar Diviner further still, hoping to negate his strategic fighting style by drawing out his inner rage.  
"Mine!" Saïx pulled an unexpected move - he thrust his claymore into the ground, sending shockwaves racing away from him through the snow which rippled like water. Xaldin leapt into the air, but he still felt the attack's power. He needed to think - what were Saïx's weaknesses? The Lunar Diviner threw his claymore at Xaldin, and it barely missed. Xaldin tried to lead the other nonentity away from his weapon, knowing that he would be at a disadvantage against it. However Saïx just summoned a new one - leaving the first claymore still in the ground. He threw in a well aimed blow whilst Xaldin's defence was down, pushing the taller man backwards several feet before he could dodge. Saïx reclaimed his fallen claymore - now he had one in each hand.  
It took several more minutes of cat and mouse - Saïx on the offence, Xaldin deflecting or dodging his blows - before Xaldin managed to get the fight where he wanted - in the air. On his terrain, Saïx would be left unable to counter-attack against Xaldin's blows. Using this technique, Xaldin managed to break past the berserker's defence, but it meant that he had to get pretty close to get Saïx in the air. So he returned to long distance attacks, trying to tire him out before he managed to do some serious damage, or at least keep him away before Vexen returned. What was taking the scientist so long, anyway? It had been at least twenty minutes since he had left, that should have been more than enough time to round up the others. Xaldin considered portaling away, but he needed to be there when Vexen returned.  
"Ready to come quietly?" Saïx asked, pausing for a while. Xaldin sensed his opportunity - if he could just distract Saïx for long enough...  
"Nah. I'm only just getting started," Xaldin cracked his knuckles, leaving himself open to attack - or so Saïx would think. As the berserker did just what Xaldin wanted, he let his carefully positioned lances loose. Saïx was hit by all of them. "Nice try, sucker," He laughed as the Diviner crumpled, dropping his claymore.  
"I'm not done yet," Saïx lifted his hand, sending streams of blue fire towards Xaldin. Huge wall came towering up beside him, trapping him until Saïx recovered. He picked his claymore back up, rushing towards Xaldin, who was trapped. That left no option but to attempt blocking all of Saïx's blows - but Xaldin's weapons were built for long distance attacks, not close range defence. He could really do with Vexen's shield or something right now.  
But then, suddenly, Saïx fell down, swearing. The fire disappeared without a trace, and Xaldin saw the three keyblade bearers with Vexen in the distance. Beside them, six more portals opened and all the other former Organisation members stepped through. Saïx looked around at the line of confident faces.  
"Looks like today isn't your day, Saïx," Xaldin said, feeling a lot better now the others were here. "Now go crying back to your master,"  
"Y-You! what have you done?" Saïx demanded. "Why do you have the Key Bearers with you?"  
"You heard what Xaldin said, Saïx. Get lost," Marluxia said, walking over with Larxene.  
"Traitors," Was the last thing the Saïx muttered before he portaled away, although the others couldn't be sure whether the comment was directed at Marluxia and Larxene - or everybody.

---

Xemnas was not best pleased with the news that Saïx bore. It was going to have a serious impact on their plans, and could, if not dealt with properly, ruin it completely.  
"All of them?"  
"All but Lexaeus and Zexion," Saïx said. "And the three Keyblade Bearers were with them,"  
"This... complicates matters."  
It was an understatement and they both knew it. "We need to lure them away to other worlds so we can take on just the traitors. Do we know who their ringleader is? If we can destroy him then it will hopefully deter the others."  
"I think it's Xaldin, but I can't be sure. I noticed that the others arrived in groups - and Vexen was with the Keyblade Bearers. Perhaps he could be?"  
"Not Vexen," Xemnas brushed off the possibility. "The man is a selfish coward. He would never try to join forces with the others against me. And I don't think Xaldin would be able to get enough support from the others,"  
Saïx thought back to a few weeks ago, when Xemnas had seemed so concerned about his fellow apprentices. But now it was like he thought little of them, and would just kill them without a second thought.  
"Xemnas?" He tentatively decided to bring up the subject. "Are you feeling alright?"  
Xemnas' frown softened a little.  
"I'm fine. It just annoys me that they would all betray me like this," He sighed. "Particularly the Elder members. I always thought that at least they would be loyal, but it seems not. Why do you ask? Is something troubling you?"  
"Yes... I suppose so. It was something I overheard you and Maleficent talking about. Do you really see me as just being another lackey?" Saïx said, almost wincing as he imagined Xemnas' response. But instead of lashing back, verbally or physically, Xemnas just gave him a crooked smile.  
"Maleficent is a cold hearted witch - if it weren't for her powers, I would never work with her at all. She doesn't like you. Or more specifically, she doesn't like you being a critical part of the plan. She wants to play the leader and doesn't want anyone to compromise her position. Let her have her fun," The Organisation's superior explained.  
"You said that you were going to use the other Organisation members," Saïx continued, doubtful.  
"That's what she wants to hear. Once we're finished, she will no longer be a trouble to us,"  
Saïx watched Xemnas leave through the door. Then, once he was sure that the nonentity had gone, he ran to the other side of the desk, hurriedly shifting through the paper work. Somehow, he just didn't trust what Xemnas was saying. It just seemed like he was trying to cover up, and particularly after what Xaldin had said -  
Unfortunately, he found nothing, so he returned to his room, turning on the computer and looking through his files. He'd just opened up a log of darkness corridor use, when a little message popped up in the corner of the screen. An email? Who from?  
He opened up the file. It had no subject or sender.

_Saïx,  
I know we aren't on best of terms, but I need you to reconsider your connections to Xemnas. I know you want to stay loyal to him, but he is only using you and will throw you away when he is done with you. I don't know if you believe that he has a softer side or something, but I know more about him than he does, and there is no such side to his personality. Even Xemnas' somebody, Xehanort, had no heart (just check the anagram).  
As you probably already know, many of the former Organisation members have joined forces with the Keyblade Bearers - a Twilight Alliance (I know, it's a stupid name. It wasn't my idea). We plan to use this alliance to make the world safe from heartless, nobodies and now nonentities, but if need be we will use our force to stop Maleficent and Xemnas' plans as well. Ultimately, we have the Keyblade Bearer's support in research to become whole beings - without using Kingdom Hearts. According to much of my research so far, it can be done.  
Please, think for yourself. Know where your true loyalties lie. Please meet me at Twilight Town by the bell tower tomorrow at noon to discuss this further.  
Yours,_  
_Vexen_

Saïx was perplexed. Why would Vexen want him to join forces with them? As far as he knew, the cranky old scientist hated him. He read through the letter several times, ingesting the information. As he reached the last paragraph, he stopped.

_Please, think for yourself. Know where your true loyalties lie._

Of course he knew where his loyalties lay - with Xemnas. He trusted the man completely - he had never let him down, and never would do. Vexen was just trying to manipulate Saïx into betraying Xemnas. But he wasn't going to stoop that low, not like all the others. Although... it really did seem like Xemnas was just using him, and everything that happened made it all more and more viable. The overheard conversation, Xaldin's remarks in their earlier fight. This new email from Vexen.  
He grabbed his mug from the side, taking a sip of the cold water. It tasted bitter and vile in his mouth. He looked back at the email, angry that the traitors thought that they could manipulate him. His fists clenched in anger, crushing the cup into splinters. Water spilled out all over the desk and mingled with his blood where he'd cut himself on the sharp clay edges of the shards. But by now, he was too enraged to notice. He punched the screen with his bloody hand, again and again, until it short circuited with a crackle of electricity. He didn't stop there - he ripped the whole desk apart, eyes clouded with hate and anger. Scraps of paper floated down like confetti around him as he destroyed everything in sight, tearing down the wallpaper, smashing the lamp on the floor until nothing remained but miniscule shards of glass. He stumbled backwards, hearing screaming but barely recognising that it was coming from him.  
"_No!!_"  
He tore at thin air, imagining that Vexen was there. He hated that man so much, for making him doubt his trust in Xemnas. But as he clawed at the imaginary face, it changed. Its skin became darker, but its hair paled to a silvery white. Dull green became brilliant gold and Saïx found himself tearing apart his own Superior - Xemnas. Shocked at the vision, he pulled away, falling onto the bed. His eyesight cleared and he returned to reality, knowing with a sickening feeling what the hallucination meant. It was a divination. He was going to try to hurt Vexen, but end up destroying Xemnas instead. Just what was the old scientist planning to do? Brainwash him? He knew that he would never betray Xemnas.  
At least, he hoped so.


	10. Run

Xaldin called together a meeting of the eleven members of the Twilight Alliance the following morning. They congregated around the kitchen table, clearly divided into three groups - Sora, Riku and Kairi at one end, Luxord, Larxene and Marluxia flanking one side and Axel, Demyx and Xigbar the other. At the table's head, next to him, was Vexen. The scientist was waiting patiently for everyone to settle down.  
"Yesterday, we all allowed ourselves to be led into a trap, which nearly resulted in the death of one of our members. The nonentities you fought did not appear by just coincidence - I have found evidence that they have been artificially created by Maleficent for her plan of world domination. She used these nonentities to lure us away from our stronghold, and try to weaken our defences. Which means she knows that we're here, together, and working against her."  
"Simply put," Xaldin concluded, "The war is on. We _need_ to find Lexaeus and Zexion before they do,"  
"And it is utterly necessary for us all to work together. No internal fighting, no backstabbing. We're all together this time," Vexen spoke bitterly, from a past experience he didn't want to remember.  
"So you and Xaldin are the ones giving orders now? Great. looks just like Organisation XIII again," Axel remarked snidely. He was slouched back on his chair, balancing it on two legs. Vexen glared at him, but let Xaldin speak.  
"No. We will have no superior this time. Nobody here is any better or worse than anybody else,"  
"Except Demyx," Somebody sniggered.  
"I heard that, Xigbar!" Demyx punched him squarely on his shoulder, and the older man laughed, fighting back playfully.  
"Be sensible," Vexen chided. "At the moment, we are at a disadvantage - Xemnas knows both our whereabouts and who is here. We know for certain that Saïx is with him, but that's it. We don't even know where they are,"  
"Castle Oblivion," Marluxia helpfully supplied. Axel frowned at him.  
"How do you know?" He asked, confused.  
"Larxene and I went back there yesterday after our mission to collect a few things. Luxord went on ahead," Marluxia began to explain. "The entire castle should have been uninhabited ever since we... left, but there were definite signs of activity there. I checked this morning and somebody had been performing very advanced fusion rituals there - Maleficent,"  
"To create nonentities..." Sora said. "That makes sense,"  
"Why didn't you tell us earlier?!" Vexen demanded from the opposite side of the table.  
"I didn't have a chance," Marluxia replied coolly, unfazed by Vexen's anger. Of course, it was perfectly understandable that the scientist would have nothing but cold glares and harsh words for the man who had ordered his death.  
"Right. So we know where they are, but not how many there are," Xaldin corrected Vexen's earlier statement.  
"What's the worst it could be? Xemnas, Saïx, Maleficent, Lexaeus and Zexion. That's five verses eleven, and we have three of the keyblade bearers with us," Luxord reminded them, trying to look on the bright side. The way the others were talking made it seem like this entire situation was a hopeless struggle against an indestructible enemy.  
"And they have countless nonentities," Vexen reminded him. "Our biggest problem is Xemnas, though. Against him, we are all powerless - except the Keyblade Bearers,"  
"That's no problem," Sora butted in. "We can take care of him,"  
"But then what if he comes after us? There's no doubt that Maleficent is carefully placing her nonentities in certain worlds at certain times, to lead us away from each other. And if any of us were to leave on a seemingly simple mission - to take down a nonentity - and run into Xemnas who knew we would be there - we won't have a chance. He wouldn't even need to fight us - without our powers or weapons, the nonentity would make easy work of us," Vexen, always pessimistic, said.  
"Then the answer is simple - every time any one of you goes away, one of us comes with you. That way, if Xemnas does appear, we can keep him at bay until you escape," Riku offered.  
"That's an idea. So we'll always be prepared, and even if we can't take Xemnas down, at least we can get away alive," Demyx was in favour of that plan. The other nonentities were nodding, considering it as a definite possibility.  
"There is one problem," Xigbar said. "Mode of transport. How do we get away if we can't use the corridors of darkness?"  
"Our gummy ship is still in Twilight Town," Kairi said. "We can use that to get away,"  
"But that means driving it there in the first place. And I know for a fact that Riku is completely useless at steering a gummy ship," Marluxia piped up, remembering the incident in the Pride Lands. Larxene, sitting next to him, laughed, elbowing him as if to demand details once the meeting was over.  
"Anyway," Xaldin moved the rambling conversation back on track. "So far, we're playing defensive – waiting for a nonentity to attack before we move. So far we've been able to defeat all the nonentities, but this tactic won't last forever. Because we're trying to protect all the worlds, Xemnas and his accomplices will be able to lead us anywhere we want to. The point is that soon we're going to have to go on the offence and take Xemnas down once and for all,"  
"How?" Marluxia asked. "Castle Oblivion is near impenetrable. Even I don't know the full layout of the Castle, and with all the locked memory rooms around, we'd be lost within minutes,"  
"So we need to draw them away from their stronghold," Xaldin replied. "Or Saïx, at least. Although he's too strong for just one of us to take down, if a group of us fights him, we should be able to defeat him. He's our primary concern because with him there, Xemnas will never need to leave Castle Oblivion." He explained, gesturing with his translucent hands. "Because he can just send Saïx out into the field instead."  
"We don't necessarily need to defeat Saïx," Vexen said. "He doubts Xemnas. We may be able to get him over to our side,"  
"Saïx would never betray Xemnas," Axel said. "He's always followed him blindly everywhere."  
"You can see it in his eyes – he's battling with himself on which side he should choose. Xemnas is using him, and deep down inside, he knows that. But he's still trying to cling on to what he knows,"  
"He hates us all," Axel battled back, unconvinced. "He called us traitors."  
Vexen sat down, looking at his notes on the table.  
"I- I sent an email to him. I'm going to try and talk to him today, in Twilight Town. Hopefully I can make him step away from Xemnas,"  
"Are you mad?! He'll tear you apart!" Larxene exclaimed.  
"If he shows any signs of attack, I only have to portal away. But if all goes well, I should be able to work something out."  
"Cunning," Marluxia was actually pretty impressed, although hardly surprised that Vexen would try to pull of a stunt like this. He remembered back in Castle Oblivion where he'd gone a step too far and tried to awake Sora's sleeping memories of Roxas. "You have my best wishes,"  
"Are you sure you'll be able to do it?" Xigbar was concerned. "I mean, Twilight Town and all,"  
"I'll be fine," Vexen all but snapped back. "It's a risk I need to take if we want to get to Xemnas."  
"Good luck," Xaldin, who also hadn't known about Vexen's plan, said. "Does anybody else have anything to tell us?"  
There was silence as everybody looked expectantly at everybody else, waiting.  
"Right. So on to finding Lexaeus and Zexion. There's been absolutely no leads, or clues as to where either of them are, which leads me to believe that they are both still in spirit form,"  
"Unless Xemnas has them," Luxord said.  
"But that's unlikely." Xigbar interrupted. "How do we find them?"  
"I haven't got a clue. Other than searching blindly for them in all the worlds, there's not much we can do but wait for a lead. When that happens I'm almost certain that Xemnas will get it too, so it'll be a race to reach them first. And that could possibly end in a fight if we encounter them,"  
Outside, something happened that only the nonentities could feel.  
"Someone arrived," Axel explained quickly, standing up. The balance of light and darkness changed significantly, notifying them of a new being in this world.  
"A nonentity?"  
"Let's go,"  
They two fighting groups ran outside, leaving the keyblade bearers, Xaldin and Vexen in the hut. Riku ran over to the window.  
"It's huge," He said, looking at the nonentity down in the valley. It was surrounded by heartless, pawing at it, lusting for its power. Next to it, the six people fighting it looked like ants. "I've never seen one so powerful,"  
It threw its first attack – slamming into the ground – which sent shockwaves that even they could feel, all the way up the hill. From the epicentre of the attack, the monster formed a huge tomahawk, wielding it in its large hands. It swung it left and right, scattering its opponents.  
Xaldin and Vexen recognised it immediately. The tomahawk was identical to the weapon belonging to the Organisation's number V.  
"Lexaeus?!" Vexen exclaimed, noticing now how similar their fighting styles where. "Why isn't he humanoid like the rest of us?! We have to stop him!" However, he did not move from his stunned position next to the window. Instead, Xaldin prepared to leave, pulling the Keybladers with him.  
"I'm sure that Xigbar will at least recognise him. Let's go,"  
They ran out of the door, slipping and sliding down the steep mountainside. Vexen watched from afar, glancing at the clock. It was quarter to twelve - he should leave soon. He began to pack up his things, preparing what he was going to say when he met Saïx in Twilight Town. The others would be able to bring Lexaeus to his senses. He wondered how they would do that without killing him, but he decided that they would definitely think of something. He opened a portal to Twilight Town, and stepped through.

There were a few people milling about the bell tower, but none took much notice of Vexen. He was well covered, the hood of his jacket up, gloves and a scarf around his neck despite the warm light from the ever-setting sun. He looked around for Saïx, hoping that he would be here. He didn't have to wait long before someone in a long black cloak stepped out from the shadows, just as the bell began to toll twelve times. He hurried over to the Lunar Diviner.  
"Saïx," He greeted him casually.  
"Vexen. look, I know what you think about Xemnas. He's not using me,"  
"I know Xemnas better than anyone. I have seen every single one of his memories, some of them that not even he remembers. There is no compassion anywhere in his soul." Vexen explained, hoping that Saïx would see sense.  
"You're lying! You're the traitor here, not him!" Saïx yelled back. "What right do you think you have to tell me what Xemnas is?"  
"I'm only trying to help you," Vexen tried to convince Saïx. "The sooner you realise what he's doing to you, the better off you'll be,"  
"He's not trying to do anything to me. He's not a backstabber, unlike all of you,"  
Vexen stiffened, his eyes narrowing into a glare.  
"Don't talk to me about backstabbing. I've been betrayed enough to know not to trust anyone,"  
"So why should I trust you so much?" Saïx was suspicious, but he'd seen the impact his words had had on Vexen and decided not to pursue the subject – harmless as Vexen had usually been, there was something in the man's eyes now that even Saïx recognised as _don't_.  
"You don't have to. You don't have to agree with us, you don't have to join us. If that's what you want, you can move to some obscure world and never be seen again. Just don't stay with Xemnas, please. You're not safe there,"  
"You're just saying that to get me out of the way," Saïx speculated. His voice had returned to normal and he spoke with absolute confidence. "So you can get to Xemnas more easily without me in the way. You don't care for me, Vexen. I know that. You hated me and my authority over you,"  
"If I told you that you were right, and left you, would you still be able to trust Xemnas completely and utterly?"  
"So I am right,"  
"I'm trying to persuade you in the interests of yourself, the Alliance, and the world. Hopefully you will see sense before Xemnas hurts you."  
"I'm not going to betray his trust in me,"  
"The pain you face deceiving Xemnas is far less than what you will feel when you discover that he has been using you," Vexen muttered, but he could tell that the berserker wasn't listening. He was trying to block out his doubts by denying all of Vexen's logic and reasoning.  
"He wouldn't use me!" Saïx took a step towards Vexen, coming out of the shadows into the sunlight.  
"He would, and he always has done. He manipulated all of us, tempting us with the promise of hearts so he could seep the world in darkness,"  
Vexen stared Saïx straight in the eye and for a moment they were both locked in impasse of raging wills.  
"_No!!_" With a roar, Saïx summoned his claymore, ready to attack. But Vexen was prepared - he opened a portal to escape.  
It didn't work. He tried to summon his shield at least, dodging Saïx's attacks. Calling shards of ice together to do his bidding - none of it worked. With a jolt, he realised that Saïx had not come alone.  
"So you are the traitor, Vexen." Xemnas said, appearing from the shadows. He made no effort to cover his strange appearance - he was wearing no gloves and the hood of his heavy Organisation coat was down. Vexen froze on the spot, suddenly realising that his brave words about the other man meant nothing - his gaze was still the most terrifying thing imaginable, cold golden eyes bottomless pits of evil. Xemnas was smiling slightly, simply walking towards Vexen. The scientist couldn't move, purely out of fear. His brain was working twice as fast as he thought possible, but at the same time it seemed like his entire body had just stopped. How had he let this happen? Here he was, defenceless and facing his death, once again in Twilight Town. His hand shot to his mouth as the memories returned.  
"It hurts, doesn't it? To feel so helpless, so _alone_. It's a feeling you're familiar with, isn't it, Vexen?" Xemnas stepped even closer and he couldn't move. He could probably outrun the shorter man, at least enough to get out of that piercing gaze, but his feet weren't listening to him anymore. His whole body was locked into place. "It's a pity. I thought you to be one of my most loyal subjects, once, but you failed me so many times," Xemnas put particular emphasis on the word "failed", and Vexen winced. "You couldn't even stop Marluxia and his little takeover plan with your half baked ideas. And now you foolishly try to persuade my second in command into leaving me. You are either a very confident man, Vexen, or an even more stupid one," He'd stopped just a few feet away from the paralysed nonentity. "Are you scared?"  
Vexen just stared back in horror, still unable to collect himself.  
"Because you should be feeling very lucky. You get to choose how you die. Firstly, if you like, I will restore your powers and you will fight Saïx, fair and square. Of course, he will win and you will die. Or, if you prefer, you can run. I will give you a one minute head start before Saïx hunts you down and kills you. What'll it be?"  
Vexen turned tail and bolted down one of the streets, twisting down the alleyway as fast as he could. Once he had gone, Xemnas looked up at the clock, waiting for the second hand to move all the way around the huge clock on the bell tower. It ticked by agonisingly slowly.  
Finally the last second disappeared with the satisfying peal of bells. Xemnas chuckled lowly.  
"Let the games begin,"  
And Saïx was gone, following Vexen's scent, hunting him down.

Vexen felt ready to collapse, but he couldn't give up just yet. The very thought of Saïx chasing him down was enough to keep him running down little lanes and alleyways, anywhere to get away from the berserker. He had underestimated Saïx's loyalty to Xemnas, and soon he was going to pay for it - with his life. There was no doubt that Saïx would find him and kill him in a matter of minutes, and without his powers he was stuck, defenceless, on this world. Saïx could get him wherever he ran. He felt so stupid not to have realised that Saïx would have told Xemnas and brought him here. Panting, he pushed past a surprised group of teenagers who were hanging out on the street, and took a turn right into a darker alleyway. In the shadows, heartless formed, nipping at his feet, but he took no notice of them. He had bigger fish to fry - or be fried by.  
The morbid thought spurred him on, and he peeled away from that street, running along a small parade of shops, gasping for breath. On the other side of the road was a park, and he crossed over into it, hoping that maybe he could delay Saïx for a few precious minutes more by taking a route through the trees. It was a long shot that probably wouldn't work, but he was desperate enough to try anything now. He had been running for so long that he was exhausted, stumbling on, fuelled by nothing but adrenaline. His whole body was screaming for oxygen and his breaths were coming out in short, sharp gasps. His throat felt sore where the cold air had grazed his windpipe and his lungs ached more than he'd have thought possible.

But he still kept on going, running off the beaten track into the undergrowth. He felt like he was running blindly, with no clue where he was going. Anywhere, he decided, where Saïx wasn't. Just away.  
He reached up to wipe the sweat from his forehead as he ran, and tripped over a stubborn root. His body groaned at the impact of his fall. His ankle twisted at an odd direction, and he cried out in pain, trying to stand. He had to get away before Saïx found him and killed him. He had to. There was no way that he was going to die here, begging for mercy. Not again.  
He willed himself to get back up, nearly falling again as he tried to put weight on his injured ankle. He noticed that he'd also grazed his left knee, and it was oozing blood through the fabric of his trousers. He carried on running, with slower, irregular steps, his bad foot barely able to take his weight. He finally broke free of the tangling trees and out into a small clearing.  
There were trees all around him, but on one side there was a high wall covering the perimeter of a huge mansion. In the middle of the wall was a high, elaborately cast iron gate.

Vexen's stomach flipped as he realised where he was.

How ironic. The place where he'd died for the first time was now going to be his deathbed once again, this time at the hands of someone much, much more savage than Axel.  
He fell to his knees, unable to stand. A small way away, he heard a quiet rustle in the trees. It must have been Saïx, who would probably laugh at him as soon as he came out of the trees, seeing him in this state. Then he would die, probably as slowly and painfully as Saïx could manage. He wondered briefly if he could get into the mansion, but it was foolish of him. The gates were firmly locked and it would be impossible to climb the towering walls.  
He could hear distinct footsteps now - they were surprisingly slow, at a brisk walking pace. Vexen stared around, hoping for there to be somewhere a way out, knowing that there wouldn't be.


	11. Almost Everyone

"We have to find a way to separate his soul from his body!" Xaldin exclaimed as he jumped away from the battlefield. After leaving Vexen in the hut, he'd found out that most of the other Organisation members had recognised and identified the nonentity as being Lexaeus. It seemed like the former nobody had lost his soul to the heartless he had fused with, but Riku had just come up with another alternative - Maleficent.  
"There's no reason for him to come and attack us here, which means that Maleficent must have sent him here. What if she found his soul and made him fuse with a particularly powerful heartless? So that he would do her bidding," He'd reasoned. It certainly seemed possible. The problem now was undoing the damage that Maleficent had caused. All the while, they'd been fighting the nonentity, but his health seemed to be barely affected by their blows. However nor was he particularly tenacious, and while his attacks were powerful, they were slow, largely aimless and easy to avoid."Where's Vexen when we need him? He would have been able to figure something out," Marluxia unleashed a flurry of petals towards Lexaeus, much to Axel's amusement. The torrent didn't do much damage, but it dazed the nonentity out of concentration, interrupting its next attack.  
"He would have gone to talk to Saïx by now," Xaldin replied.  
"It's been an hour since he left! Shouldn't he be back by now?" Larxene asked, glancing at her watch for the time. She was taking a break, sitting down away from the fight. One thing that they had noticed was that unless provoked, Lexaeus wouldn't attack, so he was completely ignoring her. The only reason that made them continue to fight was that it was a disaster waiting to happen if he wandered off down to any nearby settlements. They needed to keep him in place until something more productive could be done.  
"That's a point," Luxord said. "What if the negotiations didn't go as well as planned?"  
"He would have portaled back. Vexen isn't stupid enough to try and fight back against Saïx. He's probably just taking a long time," Xaldin dismissed Luxord's worries. "We'll just have to figure out a way without him,"  
"Yeah. So what can we do?"

---

And yet, he was still seeking a way out.  
As the footsteps approached, he forced himself to his feet once again. He didn't want to die. He couldn't die. Not when he'd come this far, survived this much, only to be destroyed again. He stumbled away from the mansion, leaning against the tall trees at the side of the clearing for support because it seemed like his whole body was shaking uncontrollably. The path twisted to the side and he followed it helplessly as the footsteps drew ever closer. Saïx would be here any moment now. He concentrated quietly on each step, wondering which one would be his last. He was just about to turn off, when the footsteps behind him stopped. He froze, knowing that Saïx had come out into the clearing and seen him.  
"Vexen."  
He heard his name distinctly even though Saïx had only spoken it quietly. He dared not to turn around. He didn't want to see his death standing there, claymore summoned and ready to kill. Instead, he began to walk again, trying to ignore Saïx. The oddest of thoughts began to pop up in his mind - _Did I leave the light on in my room this morning?_ He rounded the corner, eyes fixed on the ground as he walked. _I wonder where all those ball point pens I kept loosing are._ He heard Saïx approaching. _What was the most test tubes I ever blew up in one experiment?_ He carried on. _How many years will it be until I'll be old enough to have retired?_  
"You can't escape, Vexen. Why don't you come here and beg for your life?" Saïx called. Vexen imagined a wide, callous smile on his scarred face. That remark stung. Did they all really think that he was that weak? Suddenly adrenaline kicked in again and he picked up his pace, trying to keep out of Saïx's sight._  
I wish I'd learnt to ride a motorbike._  
He glanced up and saw that there was something brightly coloured just past the next row of trees. It sparked a thought and set him thinking. How far away was Saïx? It sounded like he was just coming around the corner, back into eye shot of Vexen. Thankfully, he was taking his time, giving Vexen an opportunity for escape. Not that, of course, Vexen could escape.  
He made a dash for the trees, trying desperately to stay on his feet and ignore the agony of his twisted ankle. Saïx was following him at a similar pace, in no hurry. He must not have recognised the Keybladers' gummy ship still parked just a few hundred metres away. Vexen allowed himself a glance over his shoulder, and saw that Saïx was further away than he'd thought. Finally, the trees enveloped around him and then he was out on the other side standing next to his way out of this world.  
But Saïx had realised and was running towards him, claymore ready for attack. Vexen felt his already aching body panic again and he fumbled finding the door handle and wrenching it open. He scrambled inside and slammed the door shut just as Saïx broke past the line of trees.  
He'd flown a gummy ship several times before when he was younger, but it had been a long time since he'd last been in one, usually having had no need to. He quickly made sure that he could remember, however, and pulled the gear stick down and sending the ship into full throttle. Twilight Town disappeared behind him, with Saïx and Xemnas still inside.  
As soon as he was far away enough to warrant safety, he let out a sigh of relief, flexing one hand and letting sparks of ice glitter over it as his powers returned. He was still out of breath, however, and his ankle and knee were killing him. He fumbled around in his pocket for a potion, and when he couldn't find one, he focused his anger on himself for forgetting to bring any. It was easier than trying to comprehend what had just happened. Gradually, as he flew back to the Land of Dragons, he felt his breathing return to normal, and his hands finally stopped shaking as much.  
His destination came into view through the windscreen, and he headed towards it, dodging boulders and other gummy ships. Suddenly, a message came over through the radio.  
"Hey Sora! It's Cid! I took off the video transmitter on your ship, you said it was annoying. You there?" The voice was crackly but still distinctive, and Vexen recognised it as one of the residents of Radiant Garden. "Sora?! Oy! Don't ignore me! I'm the one who's gonna fix the ship when you next crash it! Anyway, I need that one back ASAP, and I've finished work on yours. Come back, right? Why are you ignoring me?!" Cid whined from miles away. Vexen tried to ignore his ranting as he came into land. He wondered if the others would be worried; he'd been gone nearly an hour, but then again he hadn't said how long he was going to take. He portalled out of the gummy ship straight to his room because, exhausted as he was, he didn't think he'd be able to walk again. As soon as he was through, he flopped down onto the bed and pulled of his shoe to inspect the damage to his foot. It didn't look too bad - it had swollen slightly and there was a nasty bruise forming, but that was all. He carefully summoned a little ice to put on the bruise, lifting it up onto the old chair. As he rested, he tried to relax and convince himself that he was safe from Saïx.

---

"Vexen came back," Xigbar noted, not really for any of the other nonentity's convenience because they already knew, just clarifying it for the Keybladers. "I'll go check on the dude," He excused himself from the fight which was still carrying on after all this time, and walked up the hill, making deep grooves in the soft, fluffy snow. It didn't take long for him to reach the hut, and he slipped in through the front door. Vexen's room was the first on the right; he knocked and entered without even hesitating.  
"Vexen? You alright?" He saw the scientist sitting on the bed with his injured foot encased in ice.  
"Peachy," Vexen replied flatly. He was acting sarcastically, which to Xigbar usually meant that he'd gone into post traumatic shock (previous examples including failed experiments and particularly dire encounters with Xemnas). Xigbar sat down next to him on the bed, noticing that his hands were shaking slightly. Vexen didn't turn around to look at the scarred man, instead staring at the wall in front of him.  
"Do you wanna talk about it?" Xigbar asked conversationally.  
"Do I look like I want to talk about it?" Vexen said back, only now turning to face Xigbar, his voice a monotone. Xigbar backed away a little, surprised by Vexen's anti social behaviour.  
"Okay. Lemme try again. Tell me what happened." It wasn't so much of a question as an order.  
"Xemnas was with him, so I couldn't portal away. And Saïx tried to kill me. It was a miracle that I found Sora's gummy ship and managed to get out that way,"  
"And the ankle?"  
"I tripped over running away from Saïx," Vexen shuddered, recalling the terror he'd felt when he fell in the wood. "It's not too bad. I'll be fine," He tried to close the conversation, leaning over to study some notes - a pointed gesture at Xigbar to leave.  
"You're lucky you got out of there alive," Xigbar said, unwilling to let the subject go just yet.  
"I know," Vexen's voice was dull. He was staring morosely at the sheets of paper in his quivering hands with the kind of spaced out look that meant he was just gazing blankly at the page without reading any of the words.  
"So I'm guessing that you didn't manage to convince Saïx to break up with Xemnas?" Xigbar hazarded a guess which earned him a glare from his companion.  
"He's blindly trying to convince himself that Xemnas is right and I am wrong. He just can't accept that Xemnas is using him, and thinks the things I said were just propaganda to get him out of the way so we can get to Xemnas more easily,"  
"Okay. But there's hope for the future?"  
"Maybe," Vexen muttered.  
"Oh, by the way, we're still fighting Lexaeus. He's pretty docile and hasn't done any real damage at all, but we need to stop him wandering off and causing havoc somewhere else. Also we think he was a lost soul but then Maleficent fused him with a heartless that she could manipulate. You listening, dude?"  
"Yes. I was just thinking how we could separate him from the heartless."  
"Why are you always one step ahead of me, Vexen?" Xigbar demanded, shaking his head. Vexen allowed himself to grin wryly at the comment. "So anyway, we need a way to do that. Preferably before we get too tired of babysitting Lex over there,"  
"You won't need to do anything. If a heart and soul are incompatible with each other - and I'm guessing they are from Lexaeus' erratic behaviour patterns, then they won't peacefully connect and move on. The heart will just diffuse and the soul will become lost again,"  
Xigbar looked a little bemused at what Vexen had just said.  
"How did you manage to pull that out your sleeve so fast?" He asked. Surely Vexen would need to do tests before he was certain?  
"It makes sense," Vexen shrugged. "Believe me on this one, okay? If need be you can always destroy the heart before anything happens to the soul,"  
"Okay." Xigbar stood up, preparing to leave. "Mind if I tell the others what happened?"  
"Just say I ran into some trouble with Saïx," Vexen said. "I'll tell Xaldin the details later,"  
"Cool. See ya, dude," Xigbar saluted, walking out of the door. He slipped back down the slope to greet the others.  
"Give it your all!!" He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled at the others. "Vexen says that-"  
"We can't hear you!" Xaldin hollered back up. Xigbar ran the last few metres until he was right within earshot.  
"Vexen says that Lexaeus' soul won't fuse with the heartless because they're not compatible or something," He jogged over to Xaldin, already summoning his guns and firing a few rounds. "I dunno why, but he said trust him on this one so I'm guessing that he's right,"  
"Okay. What took him so long getting back?"  
Xaldin ran over to give backup to Demyx, who was currently Lexaeus' main target.  
"He ran into trouble with Saïx. Look, he said he'll tell you all the details later. He sprained his ankle and can't walk right now, though, if that helps. 'S gone all puffy,"  
"Alright then," Xaldin pushed Xigbar out of the way before the huge tomahawk slammed down where they'd just been talking.  
"Thanks, dude!" Came Xigbar's ever cheerful voice from the other side. And then they were off again, now attacking Lexaeus to bring down his health, not just to stop him going elsewhere. Sora and Riku were currently making the most progress - they'd worked out that a double attack right between the nonentity's eyes was particularly effective, and were making the most out of every opportunity they got to attack. Marluxia and Larxene were also playing on a kind of odd tag-team effort - Marluxia's twisting vines acting like lighting cords for Larxene's lighting fast bolts of electricity, giving them direction and focusing all their power into one place. Also, everybody was covering the back of those around them, and so far, nobody had gone into critical health. It also seemed like they were beginning to dent Lexaeus' health. The battle raged on from all sides, some of the fighters occasionally taking it in turns to have breaks to regain their energy, others battling all out against him. Gradually, eventually, _finally_, Lexaeus' nonentity crumbled at one final pyrokinetic attack from Axel. The soul glittered from its remains, and not one, but two hearts rose up and faded away, leaving the glistening soul behind, just as Vexen had predicted.  
"No wonder he was so strong, if Maleficent fused him with two heartless," Sora said, slightly in awe. The lost soul had changed form, now humanoid, but chalky white, ghost like and barely visible above the snow.  
"Zexion," Was the first thing that Lexaeus said as he regained consciousness. "I have to warn Zexion,"  
"It's okay. You're with us now," Xaldin came over to his old friend. "Tell me what happened,"  
"Xaldin? Xigbar?" Lexaeus looked around at all the familiar faces. "I thought you were dead, or worse,"  
"We're fine. Did Maleficent do this to you?"  
"Yes," Lexaeus stood up to well above everyone else, including Xaldin. "Zexion is still in soul form. I need to find him,"  
"We've been looking for him too. Do you know where he is?" Luxord asked urgently.  
"Yes," Lexaeus said. "Wonderland,"  
Luxord opened a portal.  
"Let's go. Sora or Riku, you come with us. Marluxia? Larxene?" He called people forwards to look for Zexion. "Xaldin, you'd better stay here and find out what happened to Vexen in Twilight Town,"  
Xaldin nodded in agreement as the party of five left for Wonderland. Then he turned to the hill, at the top of which was Vexen, still in the hut.  
"We'd better go find out what's wrong with him," He said to the remaining people in their group.  
"I'm not wanted, then," Axel laughed.  
"Come with me, then, to pick up some stuff from Port Royal?" Demyx offered. "I've been meaning to collect all my junk," Axel nodded and soon they, too, were gone, leaving just Xaldin, Xigbar, Riku and Kairi.  
"Is there anything you two want to do?" Xigbar asked the two remaining Keyblade Bearers. "Anywhere in particular you'd like to visit?"  
"Hollow Bastion would be good," Riku said. "We need to get back to Yuffie and Leon anyway, tell them everything that's happened."  
"Cool. I've wanted to see them again too," Xigbar opened his own portal. "Yee ya later, Xaldin,"  
Once they had gone, Xaldin began the walk up the hill. Judging by Vexen's nature, he would probably already be back to work, experimenting on anything and everything. Xaldin couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Vexen in Twilight Town - the plan had been simple. Negotiate with Saïx and portal away if danger presented itself.  
He reached the door and came inside, where everything had a sleepy quietness about it. He came into Vexen's room and found the older man slumped haphazardly against his bed, one injured foot propped up on the old chair. He was fast asleep, wheezing slightly every time he inhaled. Xaldin considered waking him up, but Vexen was probably exhausted enough as it was, and it was probably better to just leave him be. He glanced at the clock. The others would be hungry when they got back; none of them had eaten any lunch. He went into the kitchen to prepare a meal for them when they got back, thinking about all their unanswered questions. He hoped that Zexion was okay; he hadn't ever got on particularly well with the small bookworm, but he knew that Vexen and Lexaeus were very close friends with him and he didn't want either of them to suffer the loss of a friend. Also if Zexion was on their side, that was everyone except Saïx and Xemnas in their group, and the race to find the others would be over.


	12. Pass Right Through

The portal opened into a dark alleyway off from the main square. Riku walked confidently out of the darkness into the busy street as soon as they entered the world, Kairi following soon after. Xigbar was the last to come out, covering his face with his hood before he did so.  
"There's a lot going on today. Is there a market or something?" Kairi said, pointing to all the stalls set up in the square. Everywhere, there were people milling about, inspecting the goods that were set out on the brightly coloured table cloths, chatting to anybody who would listen, haggling over the price of something or other.  
"They always used to have markets on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I lived here," Xigbar told Kairi. "Looks like they wanted to reinstate the tradition,"  
"You lived here?" Riku was surprised.  
"Sure," Xigbar replied. "All of the founding members of Organisation XIII did. Course, then it was called Radiant Garden, not Hollow Bastion like it is now. But anyway, you dudes probably want to catch up with Leon and Yuffie. I'll hang around here, and meet you later, okay?" He made a gesture as to leave and intermingle with the crowd.  
"Okay," Riku said. "We'll see you later, then,"  
Xigbar was quickly gone, already looking at what the stall holders had to sell.  
"We'd better find Leon and Yuffie," Kairi said, looking around in case they were also somewhere in the market square.  
"No need," Came someone's voice from nearby. Leon was just rounding the corner with Cid.  
"How do you always manage to jump out at us whenever we're here?" Riku asked.  
"Coincidence?" Cid reminded him. "Where's Sora? I have a bone to pick with him,"  
"He's in Wonderland. We have a lot to catch up on, I'll explain everything later,"  
"Oh, it's just that I tried to talk to him through the Gummy Ship radio and he wouldn't pick up,"  
"We haven't been in the Gummy Ship since we went to Twilight Town. It's still there," Riku said, confused. Cid must have just thought that they were driving the ship when they weren't.  
"No, I have a tracker installed on that one. Just earlier today, it travelled from Twilight Town to the Land of Dragons,"  
"We weren't using it," Kairi said, suddenly worried. "Does that mean someone stole it?"  
"It's still in the Land of Dragons, last time I checked. You'll have to take your Gummy Ship - which, by the way, I mended free of charge - there to find it and bring it back. How did you get here without it, anyway?" Cid rambled on.  
"That's what we need to explain. Is Yuffie around?"  
"She's just picking a few things up from the shops. She'll be here any minute now," Leon said, looking out across the busy square. They all silently decided to wait for Yuffie's return.  
"Is this something to do with Braig?" Cid asked. His question was met by blank faces. "I mean Xigbar," Cid suddenly remembered that the man he'd known as Braig had changed his name.  
"Oh, yeah. He met us with us in Twilight Town," Kairi said. "How do you know him?"  
"Braig - that's what he used to be called - used to live here, back when it was Radiant Garden,"  
"He did say that, Kairi," Riku said, reminding her of their earlier conversation.  
"Hi guys!" Yuffie had appeared. "Where's Sora?"  
"Wonderland," Riku replied. "It's a long story,"  
"Did you find Xigbar?" Yuffie interrupted. "He was looking for you,"  
"Yeah, that's why we're here. We want to talk to you about that. Some of the former nobodies are going against Xemnas and Maleficent's plan to take over the world – or worse,"  
"I _knew_ she was planning something," Leon said to himself.  
"Anyway, they asked us to join them," Riku finished for Kairi. "And we said yes. They call it the Twilight Alliance,"  
"That is such a cheesy name," Yuffie laughed.  
"I know, I didn't think of it," Riku huffed. Not that he'd ever admit it, but secretly he thought the name was rather cool.  
"So you still didn't explain how you've been able to travel the worlds,"  
"We've been using the darkness portals," Riku said.  
"They're not safe," Leon muttered darkly. "Being that close to the darkness can corrupt you,"  
Kairi looked at Riku worriedly, but he shook his head in insistence.  
"It's fine. We're only there fleetingly, and yours and Sora's heart can't be corrupted anyway. And I've been way too close to the darkness to be stupid enough to fall into it again,"  
"I guess that makes sense," Yuffie said. "But be careful, okay? I don't want anything bad to happen to you guys,"  
"It's alright. We can handle it," Riku assured her.  
"If you're sure," Yuffie wasn't entirely convinced, but she knew that Riku had first hand experience with the darkness and presumably knew what he was talking about when it came to the other side.  
"So if you came by darkness corridor, which former Organisation XIII member took you here?" Cid asked.  
"Xigbar," Kairi told him. "He's somewhere in the market square,"  
They'd reached Merlin's house and everybody filed in to where Aerith and Merlin were deep in discussion. With them was one other person - a tall, dark haired lady dressed in black.  
"Tifa!" Yuffie exclaimed as soon as she saw the new arrival. "When did you get here?"  
"Just now," Tifa laughed, greeting her friend. "Who's with you?"  
"This is Riku and Kairi - they're Sora's friends," Yuffie said, gesturing to each, and finally to Tifa. "Guys, this is Tifa,"  
"You know Sora?" Riku asked.  
"I met him a few times when I was out looking for Cloud," Tifa explained. "Where is he, by the way?"  
"Wonderland," Riku said for the third time. "We didn't have anything to do, so we thought we'd come and talk to you,"  
"I feel so loved," Leon said sarcastically.  
"Squall! Don't say that!" Yuffie smacked him around the head.  
"That's Leon,"  
"Sure, whatever," Yuffie was grinning at having annoyed Leon.  
"Anyway, it's still good to see you," Aerith interrupted their battle. "How is everybody doing?"  
"We're fine," Kairi immediately took up the conversation, noticing with a grin how similar Leon and Yuffie were to Riku and Sora in the way they bickered. "Have you had any news from the King?"  
"Yes, actually. We got a letter from them yesterday. I think I have it somewhere here..." Aerith began to search a chest of draws piled full with odd bits and pieces. "Here we go," She pulled out a tiny letter and handed it to Kairi. Riku leaned over her shoulder to have a look.

_To Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, Cid and Merlin_

_This is Jiminy Cricket writing! I'm with the King right now - they picked me up from Twilight Town a few days ago. Sora, Riku and Kairi seem to be missing - they left me with the Gummy Ship in Twilight Town and haven't been seen since. I'm sure they're all alright, though. Anyway, we've been to several worlds - Neverland, Timeless River, Hundred Acre Wood and Deep Jungle - and defeated several nonentities there. We still don't know what their motives are, although they're definitely connected somehow with Maleficent. In Deep Jungle, we met up with a man who calls himself Xaldin - the name is familiar somehow, and I'm sure I recognised him. He helped us to fight the nonentity there, and said that it was his duty when we asked him. He also claims to know Sora, and said that he knew where the Keyblade Bearers are, and that they're safe. I'm not worried, because I'm sure that they can hold their own, but I do wonder what is going on. We're going to Traverse Town now, and I'm looking forward to seeing Geppetto and Pinocchio again since they're living there now. Well, see you soon! (I hope)_

_Yours, Jiminy Cricket._

"So that's where he went," Kairi said, putting down the magnifying glass she'd been using to read the miniscule words. "I did wonder,"  
"Hey, dudes!" Came Xigbar's voice from the open doorway. "I thought I'd find you guys here,"  
"Oh, hey Xigbar," Yuffie waved at him. The others also nodded in acknowledgement.  
"Braig?" Tifa wasn't quite up to date yet.  
"It's Xigbar now. Tifa Lockhart, right? I remember you," Xigbar grinned amiably. "Anyway, Kairi, Riku, I got a message from Xaldin if you're interested," He held up a sleek black mobile phone.  
"What does it say?" Kairi asked.  
"Nothing much. "Vexen was asleep and I didn't have the heart to wake him (no pun intended). Axel and Demyx are back but there's no news from the Wonderland expedition yet,"."  
"Is that all?" Riku wasn't really impressed.  
"Yeah. Well, I just came here 'cause I was bored and the market is closing now. Wanna go back yet or do you have more catching up to do?" Xigbar asked.  
"I don't know. Anything else to say?"  
"Don't forget the Gummy Ship. I need that back, and if you're not using them any more I'll get your one back to Disney Castle," Cid said sternly.  
"See you soon!" Yuffie smiled as Xigbar opened a darkness portal.  
"Adios!" He grinned, saluting as he disappeared into the black with Riku and Kairi. Moments later they were back in the snowy mountain tops of the Land of Dragons.

---

"Are you sure he's here?" Marluxia asked as he pushed his way through the strange, tentacle-like leaves of the lotus forest. They'd been searching for several hours and there had been no sign of Zexion anywhere.  
"Yes. Unless Maleficent found him," Lexaeus replied. He was nearby, asking the odd talking flowers for help. He knew that the diminutive man was around here somewhere.  
"He's not up in the trees," Larxene called. She was high above them in the leafy rooftops, also searching. "I found a little doorway, though. Dunno where it leads to,"  
Marluxia jumped up to join her via a small collection of mushrooms, and Lexaeus floated up as well, to inspect the gap in the trees. It was pretty small; they'd all have to duck to get inside.  
"It's worth a shot," Marluxia shrugged and crawled through. They both followed him, coming out into a huge room. There were paintings laid on the floor, and a gigantic tap facing one wall, which was covered in monstrous furniture. On the opposite wall were roof beams and burning lamps.  
"The Bizarre Room? We already came here!" Larxene exclaimed. "Look, there's Sora and Luxord on the floor," She pointed left to where the pair were running about on the wall. They looked tiny compared to the huge table and chair in the centre of the wall. "Ugh, this room is so confusing," Larxene rubbed her forehead. "No sign of Zexion, though."  
Marluxia had already wandered off, exploring this particular side of the bizarre room.  
"Come help me with this tap," He said from the other end of the wall. He was trying to pull it on, but it was too big for him to turn alone. Larxene ran over to help him and together they managed to turn the great brass contraption. The water from the tap fell sideways towards the floor, filling a huge jug with glittering liquid. Marluxia ran straight into the water and disappeared. Confused, Larxene and Lexaeus didn't have much choice but to follow. Bizarrely, they popped out on top of a hedge somewhere else.  
"Found him!" Marluxia said triumphantly, pointing to a small spirit nose deep in a book a little way away.  
"Zexion!" Lexaeus called immediately, quickly gliding over. Zexion looked up from his book.  
"Oh, Lexaeus. Where have you been? It's been all day, I was worried. What are they doing here?" He pointed to Marluxia and Larxene, annoyance evident in his tone as he mentioned them.  
"Zexion. We need to get out of here. It's not safe,"  
"But my book!" Zexion protested.  
"Grab it and go," Larxene said, vaguely amused at the blue haired soul's childlike stubbornness.  
"I can't pick it up!!" Zexion flailed, his transparent hands passing straight through the tome.  
"How did you turn the page, then?" Larxene asked.  
"I couldn't," Zexion admitted. "I've been reading the same page over and over all day,"  
"Smart move, little one," Marluxia strode over and picked the book up for Zexion, who somehow in spirit form looked even smaller than usual. He glared angrily up at the flower elemental, who had opened a portal. "Let's go. Larxene, go get Sora and Luxord,"  
"Sure," Larxene leapt off the hedge and ran towards another archway that lead to the Bizarre Room's floor. "They'd better still be in here, I'm not running around this whole bloody world looking for them,"  
However, she didn't actually get into the room before there was a huge, violent disruption right near her, and a stream of water hit her like a wave. She spun around, angrily shaking off droplets of water, and saw a long, serpent like nonentity causing havoc already.  
"Not another one," She summoned her Foudre, preparing for battle and hoping that Sora and Luxord would come out of the Bizarre Room soon. As strong as she was, she wasn't sure how well she'd fare pitted alone against one of those. The nonentity had a blue tint to it, the colour fading to black as it reached the tips of its three tails, and a colour closer to white at its head. It unfolded large wings from its back, and the membranes it was made of looked like textured glass, showing a distorted world behind them. Acknowledging her as an enemy, it turned to face her, roaring.  
"Nice bark," Larxene admitted. "But is it worse than your bite?" Like lightning, she attacked, sending streams of electricity towards the nonentity, kunai striking it all over. She knew that she was at a disadvantage, though - since it was a water element, she could be seriously damaged if she got too close or it managed to get in another attack like the first one. She moved as fast as she could to avoid its water balls, attacking it again and again. Thankfully, it wasn't long before she realised that she had help - Sora was on the other side of the court, firing off magic attacks along with short range hits with his keyblade. The monster also periodically slowed down to almost a standstill as Luxord worked his magic, allowing Larxene and Sora to take out more of its health.  
"Where are the others?" Luxord called to Larxene as soon as he got the chance.  
"We found Zexion!" She yelled back, but before she could elaborate, they were pulled apart again by a powerful water attack from the nonentity they were fighting. A few moments later they were close enough to talk. "I'll explain later," Larxene said.  
"Good idea," And Luxord was off again, coming to Sora's assistance. The Keyblade Bearer had suffered a nasty attack and had gone into critical health. Noticing that Larxene's health was also pretty low, Luxord used one of his mega potions to cure the whole party.  
"Thanks," Sora said, and rushed right back into the centre of the battle again, thrashing his Keyblade about like a madman. They continued to fight, gradually pulling the nonentity's health down. It only took a few minutes for it to fall, defeated. Luxord opened up a portal and invited Larxene to step through.  
"Ladies first," He smiled as she walked in, with Sora right behind her. Luxord brought up the rear.  
Soon they were back in the Land of Dragons.

"How's Vexen?" Luxord asked as they all trudged in through the door of the small hut. Outside, a snow storm was beginning to start up and the temperature had dropped dramatically from very cold to absolute zero.  
"He's asleep, so be quiet," Xaldin hushed the incoming group. "Dinner's on the table, help yourself,"  
"Gladly," Larxene quickly made her way to the dining room, followed by Luxord. Sora looked up at Xaldin, who stared a little blankly at him.  
"What happened in Twilight Town, anyway?" He asked, but Xaldin shook his head.  
"I'm waiting for Vexen to wake up; Xigbar knows but he won't tell anyone. He says it isn't his story to tell. It's good that you found Zexion, though," He changed the subject.  
"Yeah. That's everybody now, right?" Sora began to count everybody off on his fingers.  
"Except Roxas, of course. He's still inside of you," Xaldin pointed to the legendary Keyblader's heart. Sora subconsciously raised his hand to his chest.  
"Inside me... Is there any way to get him out?" Sora had always wanted to meet his other half. There was so much missing from him - memories that he couldn't remember, things he'd done without ever doing. There was always going to be part of him that yearned to know what had happened in Castle Oblivion, but meeting his own nobody - it was something he often dreamed of, something that would answer so many of the questions he had.  
"Vexen's working on it," Xaldin was saying. "Come on, you'd better get some food before somebody else eats it. I'll go check that Vexen's okay,"  
"I thought you said he was asleep," Regardless, Sora was edging closer and closer to the door to the dining room.  
"He probably is," Xaldin replied. "But I might see if I can move him to a more comfortable position. He was sleeping a little awkwardly last time I went in and if he wakes up with a crick in his neck, it'll just make things worse. He's creaky enough as it is,"  
"Just how old is Vexen, anyway?" Sora asked. To him, Vexen seemed like one of those infinitely old men that were just... old and always had been. It was difficult to imagine him or any of the other really old people that he'd met over the years as a young person.  
"Um... Oh, I forget. Forty something? He's not that old. He's younger than Xigbar,"  
"How old is Xigbar?"  
"Sixty nine," Xaldin smirked. "He has been for about five years,"  
Sora looked confused.  
"You'll understand when you're older," Xaldin said, ruffling Sora's spiky hair. "Now go eat, if there's anything left,"


	13. Disturbia

"Honestly, this is not good enough,"  
Maleficent was scalding Saïx as if he was a small child. It irritated him. "You've let him roam free, after all that,"  
"There's no way I could have known that there was going to be a gummy ship there,"  
"Well, maybe you should have used your divining skills and worked it out!" Maleficent roared. Ghostly green flames danced on her wire like body.  
"I can't change what I see in the future. It's set in stone as soon as the vision comes to me," Saïx tried to explain. "It's better not to know what's coming and have a choice in what you do,"  
"You dare defy me?" Maleficent hissed, voice suddenly dangerously low after her outburst. "Who do you think you are?"  
Saïx was tempted to tell her just who he was, and what he thought of her, but he resisted the temptation, biting his lip to keep control of himself.  
"Well, you won't fail me again," Maleficent turned around to face the summoning circle that she'd drawn out. "And if you do, I promise you that you won't be alive for much longer,"  
Saïx glared at her back, livid. What right did she have to make such threats? He answered only to Xemnas, and here this ugly witch was bossing him around as though he were a mere slave! He wanted to rip her apart, make her suffer in any way that he could for her insolence, no matter that Xemnas said. The thought was too feasible, too easy. His reflexes were fast enough that he could close the distance between them, summon his claymore and take her down in a matter of seconds, before she could even utter one syllable of an incantation. She wasn't expecting it, thinking that he was broken under her rule, and it would be all to easy to break her pathetic little neck. Just one little swing of his weapon, and she'd be down on the floor, dead. That would teach her to push him about.  
Suddenly the sane half of his mind caught up with what he was planning, and he stumbled back involuntarily, shocked at what he had been thinking. It wasn't that he wanted to kill Maleficent; if anything, the old hag deserved it, but that in doing so he would go against Xemnas. And it was only yesterday that he'd sworn, whole heartedly, that he would never betray his superior. So he bit his lip again and let her continue to push her around.  
"So we need to find a way to get them out of - are you listening?" Maleficent turned around to face Saïx, glaring stiffly at him.  
"Hm? Oh, no," The Lunar Diviner decided that if he couldn't kill Maleficent, the least he could do was annoy the hell out of her. It was certainly working.  
"You insolent little-!" She didn't even finish her insult, shaking her fists at him. "Oh, never mind. You don't need to know the plan anyway,"  
"I'll leave then and nobody will have to listen to your pointless monologue," Saïx replied, face expressionless. He turned around and walked out of the door, leaving an enraged Maleficent behind him. A few metres down the corridor, he met Xemnas, who nodded in acknowledgement at him.  
"I heard your little argument with Maleficent," the dark-skinned man said, pointing to the room on their left. "I know you don't like her, but show the proper respect. She is a valuable ally,"  
"She should show the proper respect to me," Saïx talked back, surprised at how defiant he could be. Xemnas looked at him pointedly, eyes narrowing at the remark.  
"Don't forget your place, Saïx. Just because you are a part of the plan doesn't mean that you have the right to disobey our orders," Xemnas walked into the room with Maleficent, out of eye and earshot. Saïx couldn't help but feel a little angry about what he'd said. But then, he realised, Xemnas didn't see them as being equal. No matter what Saïx did, he would always be below Xemnas and thus Maleficent.  
Vexen's words from the email and Twilight Town came back to him, despite himself. He tried to push the thoughts of mutiny to the back of his mind, but he was doubtful. What if Vexen really was right? What if, to Xemnas, he was still just as expendable as a dusk or a shadow?  
No. That couldn't be right. Everything that Vexen had said was just propaganda, an attempt to get Saïx out of the way so Xemnas was easier to defeat. It was nothing more than manipulation.  
But his vision when he'd received the email - what he'd said to Maleficent was true, once he'd pried into the future, what he saw became set in stone, and no matter what he did, it would happen. Which meant that one day, he was going to go against Xemnas.  
Perhaps he was just reading too far into this entire thing. The prophesy could have just spoken about nothing more than an argument, or Saïx could have been battling against Xemnas for practice. It didn't have to mean betrayal.  
He reached his room which he still hadn't fixed from his last outburst, and the rawness of it all comforted him. He sat down on the ripped bed sheets, following the claw lines with his fingers, picking up a few shreds of fabric. He really should have got Xemnas to invest in a new duvet, but he knew that the man was always hesitant to replace the broken things in Saïx's room. The berserker was prone to violent dreams and it usually only took him a couple of nights to wreck any new replacements.  
He pulled a few stray feathers out of the duvet and threw them on the floor. They floated down slowly despite the force he'd thrown them with, and landed gently on an old towel that had been there for goodness knew how long. Saïx found himself getting annoyed at the feathers for being so calm, but it was probably just the stress of the past few weeks. He picked up the towel and threw it at the cupboard with all the force he could muster. It whacked against the closed door, which broke and left the door hanging at a different angle to the frame. Saïx wrenched it off and punched it until it was nothing more than splinters.  
Why wasn't he being told anything? Why was Xemnas always keeping him in the dark about everything he did? Saïx had always been loyal to the Superior. Was this all the thanks that he was going to get? "Don't forget your place"?! The words stung as he remembered them and he moved onto the next door of the cupboard, breaking it down and throwing punches until his knuckles bled. Maleficent had stolen Xemnas away from him - now he was being left out of the loop because Xemnas was spending all of his time with that stupid, ignorant bitch of a sorceress. It wasn't fair; she'd never shown any loyalty to Xemnas, and was probably even planning to backstab him when his usefulness ran out.  
The door opened and the object of Saïx's confusion stepped in. He was dressed down in a pair of jersey trousers and a plain white t-shirt.  
"I heard noises," Xemnas explained, shutting the door behind him. "Are you alright?"  
"No," Saïx replied curtly. He refused to make eye contact with the other man.  
"Is this still about Maleficent?"  
"Not really,"  
Saïx didn't elaborate further, seeing no reason for Xemnas to know his troubles when the silver haired man wasn't telling him anything either.  
"Vexen?" Xemnas hazarded a guess, unsure as to why Saïx was acting so oddly as of late.  
"Partly,"  
"Saïx. Stop giving me one word answers. I want to know why you're angry,"  
"I haven't been. My answer to the one about Maleficent was two words, and this one is longer as well," Saïx all but snarled.  
"You're acting like a stubborn little child, do you realise that? You need to get over whatever traitorous thoughts Vexen put into your head and do what is required of you,"  
"You just want me to stop thinking at all and follow you blindly again just like I always have done!" Saïx snapped back, but his hands shot to his mouth when he realised what he'd just said. "S-sorry," He stuttered, expecting Xemnas to shout at him for the outburst, but instead he was given a curious look.  
"So you really are having doubts about your loyalty," Xemnas said. He opened the door to leave again. "But remember, if you really do want to leave me, I shall have to kill you. You know too much," Then he was gone, leaving Saïx in even more torment. He'd hoped that by talking to Xemnas, he could sort things out and ease his worries, but it had just made things even worse.  
"No, Xemnas. I don't know anything at all," He found himself murmuring.  
He realised that if he was going to make a decision, it would have to be soon. Now that the threat had been made, it felt like that was the only reason that he was staying. If the other nonentity was willing to kill him, then there was no way that he could have ever had any compassion inside of him.  
Vexen was right. He was being used. Xemnas had manipulated him like a doll in his hands.  
He donned his long black coat over the shirt he was wearing and was about to open a portal, but then he had a thought. He wasn't just going to run away. He was going to get revenge.  
He booted up his computer and straightened out the monitor enough that it actually worked, even if the screen was dark and kept blinking on and off. He opened up his emails and found that he had a new message, this time from a known address on the Organisation XIII networks - VI.

_Saïx,_

_I'm assuming that what you did to Lexaeus and Vexen was out of free will, but it doesn't matter any more. You had your chance for redemption, but you've chosen sides whether you meant to or not. I'm never going to forgive you. You can tell your precious Xemnas that the war is on and you will lose. _

_I'm sure you think that we're all traitors, but as far as I'm concerned you can think what you like. You'll be dead soon, bastard._

Saïx imagined Zexion angrily whacking the keyboard with every letter as he wrote the email. His anger was understandable, he supposed. First Saïx had very nearly succeeded in killing Vexen and then had been sent out to kidnap Lexaeus and take him back to Maleficent, who had fused the soul with two powerful heartless to create an even stronger nonentity. It looked like turning to the Twilight Alliance wasn't an option. He wondered whether he should have continued with his plan of contacting Vexen and offering him the little information he knew in return for protection once Xemnas found out that he was betraying him. There was another email from Vexen which Saïx opened after a moment's of hesitation. It was short and simple, more calm and thought out than Zexion's enraged rant.

_I'm still hoping you'll reconsider your choice, even if you don't join us._

Saïx was surprised that Vexen was so forgiving to the man who'd come within a hair's breadth of killing him. But he knew that he couldn't try to get into the Alliance. Zexion's death note was proof of that. So he wrote out a reply to Vexen.

_Vexen  
I can't join you, Zexion will kill me._

It didn't sound right. He cleared the page and tried again.

_Vexen.  
I'm sorry for what I did to you in Twilight Town. It was wrong. But I didn't know what to do when I got your email, so I told Xemnas and then followed him. I realised today that you were right after all though._

No. He was struggling to find the right words to what he wanted to say.

_Vexen.  
I have realised that you were right after all. Maleficent and Xemnas have been using me. Xemnas knows that I am doubting him, and threatens to kill me if I tell you anything.  
I think I can be useful if I pretend to stay with him. I can give you information as to his plans. Consider it repayment for what I did in Twilight Town. I'm sorry.  
Saïx_

His hand hovered over the send button on the broken, flickering screen. If he sent this one email, there would be no turning back. He would have betrayed Xemnas and his vision would have become true. He would be risking his life to help Vexen and the others.  
He clicked send and the email disappeared. Saïx sat back in his chair, feeling creak underneath him. Glancing up at the clock, he realised just how late it was, and decided to get some sleep. He pulled off his coat, having not needed it after all, and changed quickly into a pair of loose black trousers and a sleeveless vest. He was about to switch off the dim light, but there was a bing and he got a new message. It was from Vexen.

_Thank you. I wish you luck in your endeavours. Be careful though, please. If Xemnas should find out, we will give you protection but there is only so much we can do.  
And no hard feelings about Twilight Town. I have plenty of traumatic near death experiences by now, I can cope with one more. :)  
Vexen_

Surprisingly, the last sentence made him smile a little. Of course, Vexen had faced death at least three times now - once becoming a nobody, then during whatever had happened in Castle Oblivion, and finally just the other day in Twilight Town. But it wasn't just the other man's frankness that lightened his mood a little. The joke was almost a reminder that things weren't all that bad, no matter how dire everything seemed. It was a sort of symbol of hope. Saïx wondered whether Vexen even realised that, but it was unlikely. He was a straightforward man, unlike Saïx himself who always sought the deeper meaning in everything.  
He was about to type out a reply, but the monitor's screen blinked out on final time and dramatically fell apart. He sighed, switching off the computer from the wall. At least Vexen had got his email and had considered his offer. He went to bed with his mind surprisingly clear, planning ways to uncover more information about Xemnas and Maleficent's plan without being caught.

---

_The entire woodland had a kind of 3D but not quite 3D feel about it, as if every object had been made out of cardboard, but everything felt real enough and when he walked around the objects, he could see different parts of them just like usual. But very faintly, everything had a thin black outline around it. It was surreal.__  
Saïx wondered where he was. The world had a familiar feel about it, but he wasn't sure he'd ever been here before. He wasn't alone, however.  
"Saïx," Someone called his name from a little way behind him. The voice was definitely belonging to a male, but it had an odd sort of high, nasal quality to it, as if the owner hadn't quite gone through puberty properly. Saïx turned around to greet the man - he knew it was Vexen. That voice was just about impossible to forget. "I was hoping that you'd be here,"  
"Where am I?" Saïx asked.  
"Hundred Acre Wood - it's a world inside a book, so as to speak. Xemnas can't find us here,"  
"I thought I was asleep,"  
"You are," Vexen told him. "This is a dream,"  
Saïx was confused. This wasn't how his dreams usually worked. They were normally dark, morbid nightmares full of blood and death, not random encounters with cranky old men in relatively pleasant forests. The dream Vexen was pacing up and down, mumbling to himself.  
"Did you have anything to say to me? I mean, appearing in my dreams and all,"  
"I thought you might like a change from your normal dreams," Vexen said.  
"So why did you say you were hoping to see me here?"  
If we try to meet anywhere else, Xemnas will find out and kill you," Vexen said.  
"But you're just an image in a dream," Saïx protested. Any information that this Vexen gave him would just be a figment of his imagination, something erratically conjured up by his warped mind.  
"Your dreams hold incredible power," Vexen said. "He didn't name you the Luna Diviner for nothing,"  
"I don't understand," Saïx said.  
The light forest disintegrated away into something much more fitting of Saïx's subconscious. It was a small black room with three bare lamps that cast garish shadows over the blood stained walls. There were broken chains littering the floor along with bloody knives, smashed crockery and furniture and a dead body spread eagled over a smashed chair. Saïx recognised it immediately.  
"Xemnas?!" He ran over to the body. It was covered in clawed gashes. "What did I do?" Even for him, he felt repulsed and the sheer amount of blood made him queasy.  
"Nothing - yet," Vexen said in a distant voice.  
"This is the future?" Saïx was horrified. He might not have trusted Xemnas completely, but he didn't want him dead. Not like this.  
"It's a possibility. I will do all in my power to stop it, though,"  
"What can you do? If I see the future, it happens. I'm going to kill Xemnas." His voice sounded as hollow and dead as the body beside him.  
"The future happens because you let it happen," Vexen said. "You don't believe that you're strong enough to stop it, so you can't,"  
"I couldn't change the future when it was most important," Saïx said. "What hope do I have of being able to do it now?" Every time he looked into what was going to happen, it reminded him of his past - what had brought him into the darkness, to Xemnas. He'd foreseen the man who killed his family, and he'd tried so hard to save them. Of course, it had been for nothing. The scar on his face was a constant reminder of his futile struggle to save them.  
"You still want the best for Xemnas, don't you?" Vexen changed the subject. "You don't want even more pain. No wonder you tried to stick with him no matter what he did,"  
"I thought he could save me," Saïx said, voice choked. "I guess I was wrong again,"  
"Maybe it's the other way around," Vexen murmured. "If anyone can save him from his darkness, it's you,"  
"Me? Nobody is more seeped in darkness and blood than me. There's nothing I can do for him," He looked back at the body. Xemnas' face was unusually pale, but his expression seemed unnaturally peaceful. It wasn't an expression that Saïx was used to seeing on his face.  
"When Ansem took him in, back when he was Xehanort, he was on the brink of death, with no previous memories of his past. I did some tests on his memory. All there was was darkness - the more tests I did, the more darkness I found. There was no light anywhere, in his heart, his soul, his body. Not even hidden. He needs the light that you have,"  
"I don't have any light," Saïx protested.  
"It's hidden deep inside you. The fact that you still stayed loyal to him even after everything he did is fact of that," And the strange Vexen was gone, leaving Saïx alone with his nightmares._  
He awoke screaming, cold sweat covering his body. He grabbed the ripped sheets on his bed and held them close, gasping for breath._  
Sorry, Vexen. I can't leave Xemnas just yet._


End file.
